{"id":126321,"date":"2025-09-07T10:06:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126321\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T10:06:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:06:29","slug":"legault-was-unaware-of-cost-overruns-at-quebec-auto-insurer-until-public-scandal-he-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126321\/","title":{"rendered":"Legault was unaware of cost overruns at Quebec auto insurer until public scandal, he says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault<\/a> told a public inquiry on Tuesday that he knew nothing about the $500-million cost overrun tied to digitization efforts at the province\u2019s auto-insurance board until it became public knowledge in February. <\/p>\n

Mr. Legault\u2019s appearance before the Gallant commission into mismanagement and alleged cover-ups at the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de l\u2019assurance automobile du Qu\u00e9bec was the culmination of months of speculation about how much the Premier knew, and when, about a scandal that has already claimed one of his cabinet ministers. <\/p>\n

The province\u2019s embattled leader, facing plummeting poll numbers as he approaches seven years in office, said that details of mounting problems and ballooning costs within the SAAQclic project should have reached his desk, but didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cShould I have known? I think so, yes,\u201d Mr. Legault said. \u201cSomeone should have informed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testifying before a public inquiry \u2013 which was struck after a blistering Auditor-General\u2019s report in February \u2013 was seen as a chance for the Premier to either stabilize or sink his political fortunes ahead of a promised cabinet shuffle. <\/p>\n

Mr. Legault\u2019s centrist, nationalist Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec party has fallen behind the older political brands of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and the provincial Liberals, with an election looming next fall. <\/p>\n

In a press conference, Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez framed Mr. Legault\u2019s appearance before judge Denis Gallant as a no-win proposition for his rival: In the event the Premier didn\u2019t know about the cost overruns, he would be proven incompetent, Mr. Rodriguez argued, while if Mr. Legault did know and failed to act, it would be even worse. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Hero to zero: Fran\u00e7ois Legault is following in Justin Trudeau\u2019s footsteps<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion: With Pablo Rodriguez leading the provincial Liberals, Quebec politics comes full circle<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Premier, an accountant by training, appeared calm and confident answering questions about the fine points of public-service budgets, as he tried to deflect blame to the Liberal government that signed the original contract in 2017. That \u201cpoorly negotiated\u201d agreement put the onus on the SAAQ, rather than the IT contractors, for cost overruns and problems with implementation, he said.<\/p>\n

Disarray at the public auto insurer burst into the public consciousness in February, 2023, when digital hiccups led to long lines for driver\u2019s licence renewals and left some Quebeckers waiting outside in the cold. The spectacle eventually prompted the Auditor-General\u2019s report that found the digitization effort cost more than $1-billion, with delays and design flaws bureaucrats hid from their political bosses. <\/p>\n

The findings were especially harmful to Mr. Legault\u2019s government, which has emphasized its economic credentials and sound management of government finances. \u00c9ric Caire, minister of cybersecurity and digital technology, resigned shortly after the report was released in February, but the affair has continued to dominate the political agenda.<\/p>\n

The opposition Liberals have now called for the resignation of two more cabinet ministers for their roles in the scandal, including deputy premier Genevi\u00e8ve Guilbault, for claiming during her testimony before the inquiry that she wasn\u2019t warned about the exploding costs at the insurer, then reversing herself when confronted with documentary evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Further escalating matters, police have identified four suspects in an anti-corruption investigation targeting SAAQclic, according to the newspaper La Presse. <\/p>\n

The focus will continue to fall on the Premier in the days ahead, as his chief of staff and the former head of the public service testify. On Tuesday, Mr. Rodriguez, the Liberal Leader, said that despite Mr. Legault\u2019s protestations, it was \u201cvery hard to believe\u201d he didn\u2019t know earlier about the cost overruns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault told a public inquiry on Tuesday that he knew nothing about the $500-million cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-126321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}