Quebec auto board officials lied to hide costs of botched SAAQclic launch, report concludes

Top officials at Quebec's automobile insurance board, known as the SAAQ, deliberately lied to the provincial government for years to conceal colossal cost overruns and issues with its digital transition, according to a report tabled by Judge Denis Gallant in Quebec City Monday.

Gallant's 566-page report found the digital transition project was "too much, too big, too fast" and that there weren't enough checks and balances in place to keep the project in line.

"The Commission finds that, for much of the [digital transformation] program’s duration, the SAAQ lied to parliamentarians, ministers and their staff about the program’s implementation," the report says.

In his speech as he tabled the report Monday, Gallant said it should be the norm for people in public service to be "transparent and honest," but that wasn't the case here.

Gallant's report comes after hearing months of testimony and analyzing hundreds of thousands of documents in the public inquiry into the launch of SAAQclic, which concluded late last year.

The website’s launch was fumbled, leaving many Quebecers waiting in long lineups in the cold because of issues renewing their drivers' licences or accessing their accounts when the online platform first came out in 2023.

An auditor general's report last year revealed the digital transformation is at least $500 million over budget — expected to cost up to $1.1 billion — and how it wasn’t properly tested before its launch.

Gallant's report largely echos the findings of that earlier report, but it also says top officials at the SAAQ botched the transition and concealed cost overruns from elected officials.

It does not put the blame on any single person and government officials go largely unscathed, though the report does suggest the premier's office and former transport minister Geneviève Guilbault may have been made aware of at least part of the cost overruns as early as 2023 — and not last year, as they have claimed.

"Certain government officials obtained, at some moments, reliable information on the rollout of the program," Gallant said.

The government is also looking into taking legal action against SAAQ officials, he said.

In a news conference following the tabling of the report, Quebec Premier François Legault says it's clear his government had no knowledge of the situation and that it was SAAQ officials that misled both the government and taxpayers.

He also stressed the issues began when the project was first conceived — and when it was still the Quebec Liberals who were in office.

"I am not saying the government was perfect. We could have been more mistrusting, we could have asked more questions," said Legault. "But one thing is clear now ... We can clearly see my government was never aware that the SAAQclic project had a revised cost of $1.1 billion."