Santé Québec IT project derailed by series of mistakes, government audit finds
CBC
Quebec’s Health Ministry made several mistakes and "failed to meet its obligations," which led to the derailment of Santé Québec’s digital transformation project, according to an audit by the province’s Cybersecurity Ministry.
The 34-page document, obtained by Radio-Canada, was written in early 2025.
It details the management of the call for tenders and launch of the suspended Système d'information des finances et de l'approvisionnement (SIFA) — a project meant to take over supply management and payroll in the health-care system.
The contract for the project was awarded in March 2024, for $408 million, to the firm LGS — the same firm involved in the SAAQclic fiasco.
Last month, the official opposition requested that the audit be made public, but the government refused.
A few days earlier, the SIFA project had been suspended mainly due to cost overruns of 191 per cent and significant delays.
Radio-Canada sources say the SIFA project will cost $630 million, including the development and operational phases.
Health Minister Christian Dubé even reportedly asked Premier François Legault's cabinet for permission to redirect the human resources' development budget, currently on hold, to SIFA, which would bring the total to $725 million.
Initially, the project was expected to cost $96 million.
The Health Ministry’s main mistake, according to the audit, was delegating the responsibility of managing a call for tenders for a national project to the Saguenay regional health authority, which was ill-equipped to handle the task.
The Cybersecurity Ministry report says the Health Ministry “gradually abandoned its role and responsibilities [toward the project], or even failed to assume some of them in favour of increased delegation to the CIUSSS of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.”
The audit noted a “lack of involvement” on the part of the Health Ministry as well as the CIUSSS’s inexperience.
For instance, “neither judicial affairs nor those responsible for the Health Ministry’s contract management were involved” in the call for tenders.
“The CIUSSS even had to retain the services of a private law firm to obtain necessary support,” the report reads.
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