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Campaigning politicians blasted Premier Christine Fréchette on Monday over yet another Quebec IT project that is running over budget.
Marie-Claude Sarrazin, the Parti Québécois candidate for the Groulx riding, told reporters that, if elected, a PQ government would place a moratorium on all ongoing government IT projects.
“We cannot continue down this path,” Sarrazin said. A PQ government would instead audit all IT projects to “ensure that the requirements analysis has been carried out properly.”
Sarrazin’s comments come in the wake of a Radio-Canada report which found that Santé Québec’s digital transformation project, known as SIFA, is running over budget.
It was initially slated to cost $96 million, but, according to a report obtained by Radio-Canada, its cost is being re-evaluated at $1 billion.
The potential cost overruns recall the SAAQclic fiasco — the botched digital transformation of Quebec’s auto insurance board which ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and led to the Gallant commission, which concluded that SAAQ administrators lied to the government to hide the scale of the problems.
Ruba Ghazal, co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire, also took aim at the government over the report.
“The cost overrun is staggering,” she said. “It’s Quebecers’ money. Christine Fréchette should be feeling embarrassed this morning, because she’s responsible for this.”
Fréchette, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec party, had no public events on Monday as she prepared for the first election debate on Tuesday.