Who knew what? Quebec's political class braces for final report into SAAQclic fiasco

After months of testimony from Quebec ministers, civil servants and automobile insurance board officials, Judge Denis Gallant is expected to table his final report on the events surrounding the tumultuous release of the SAAQclic website at a news conference Monday morning. 

Government officials were given an advance copy of the report on Friday.

It’s almost exactly one year since Guylaine Leclerc, then auditor general, shook the province with a scathing report on the launch of the automobile insurance board’s website SAAQclic, calling the entire operation a failure. 

The website’s launch remains etched into the memories of many Quebecers, some of whom found themselves 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.

Leclerc’s report outlined how the digital transformation went at least $500 million over budget — expected to cost over $1.1 billion in the end — and how it wasn’t properly tested before its launch.

She also found information had been hidden from elected officials, and could not say at the time whether the government had been made aware of the cost overruns. 

It was these lingering questions that led to the public inquiry known as the Gallant commission.

Over the course of 75 days, more than 130 witnesses testified, and more than 200,000 documents were reviewed as part of the inquiry.

The final report was initially supposed to be submitted in September, but that deadline was postponed twice because of the volume of evidence that needed to be poured over.

Opposition parties are eager to receive Gallant's report. They say the findings will be especially critical as the government gets ready for other digital transformation projects, including in the health-care sector.

"I want to understand who’s responsible, at the political side but also at the management level," said Quebec Liberal transport critic Monsef Derraji. "We should take some notes for the future. We have so many IT projects, now in the health-care system, in justice, everywhere."

The Parti-Québécois (PQ), which considers itself the government in waiting, says it's also looking to learn from the mistakes made in the launch of the project.

"In a context where we failed to fund correctly many fundamental missions of the Quebec state, there’s so much money involved and we need to understand how did we get there," said PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

In an effort to get out ahead of the release of the report, Karl Malenfant, the SAAQ's former vice-president of digital experience who has been described as an architect of the online platform, held a news conference last week to give his version of events.