{"id":88028,"date":"2025-08-22T06:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88028\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:02:10","slug":"quebecs-former-transport-minister-says-he-was-kept-in-the-dark-about-saaqclic-cost-overrun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88028\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec’s former transport minister says he was kept in the dark about SAAQclic cost overrun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly four months since the start of the\u00a0public inquiry into the failed rollout of SAAQclic, Quebec’s former transport minister told the Gallant commission on Thursday that he was kept out of the loop\u00a0regarding several\u00a0details about the platform, including its actual cost.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Bonnardel explained that he never thought the budget would be exceeded\u00a0and wasn’t aware of the overspending. He stressed that the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9\u00a0de\u00a0l’assurance\u00a0automobile du\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0(SAAQ)\u00a0did not clearly explain to him the different phases of the project, including its anticipated rollout.<\/p>\n

Bonnardel, who is Quebec’s public security minister,\u00a0served as transport minister between 2018 and 2022 \u2014 pivotal years for the CASA project, which is the SAAQ’s IT modernization initiative that included the SAAQclic platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, SAAQclic\u00a0was expected to cost $458 million, and\u00a0Bonnardel told the commission he believed that to be the total cost of the project. But he says he found out in February 2021 that the cost at the time had exceeded $600 million.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“It’s quite unusual,” said Bonnardel, who told the inquiry he had requested a meeting with senior SAAQ officials immediately.<\/p>\n

“I want to know where this figure of $620 or $630 [million] comes from.”<\/p>\n

V\u00e9ronik\u00a0Aubry,\u00a0who headed\u00a0Bonnardel’s\u00a0office between 2018 and 2021, said in\u00a0her testimony Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0that she found out about delays and potential cost overruns in 2020. She said she relayed that information to Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault’s political adviser.<\/p>\n

The February 2023 launch of the\u00a0SAAQclic\u00a0online platform faced a series of major failures and sparked a customer service crisis. It was\u00a0intended to centralize most of the\u00a0services from the\u00a0province’s automobile insurance board.<\/p>\n

These problems were highlighted in a\u00a0scathing report<\/a>\u00a0by the auditor general in February 2025 who found that the true cost is now likely to climb\u00a0over $1.1 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For me, every $100,000 that is overspent must be defended and explained,” Bonnardel told the commission, saying he always insisted on fiscal responsibility and spending control in his role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The public inquiry \u2014 presided\u00a0over by Denis Gallant and known as the Gallant commission \u2014 began on April 24.<\/p>\n

\"ADenis Gallant is the head of the inquiry in charge of looking into the SAAQclic debacle. (Ivanoh Demers\/Radio-Canada)’Transparency is non-negotiable,’ says Bonnardel<\/p>\n

In his testimony, he described himself as a “corridor man” who knocks on his staff’s office doors to ask them questions about different files and their progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For me, transparency is non-negotiable,” said Bonnardel.<\/p>\n

He spoke of the\u00a0impression he initially had of former SAAQ CEO Nathalie Tremblay, highlighting how “reassuring” she was regarding the delivery and the progress of the project and how he fully trusted her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to some testimonies heard during the commission in recent days, Tremblay allegedly glossed over conflicts between the SAAQ and its suppliers, which would ultimately\u00a0drive\u00a0up the project’s costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

V\u00e9ronik Aubry,\u00a0who headed\u00a0Bonnardel’s office between 2018 and 2021, said in her testimony Wednesday<\/a> that she found out about delays and potential cost overruns in 2020, despite being reassured by Tremblay.<\/p>\n

Bonnardel also pointed the finger at the former provincial Liberal government, which he said\u00a0had not provided him all the information about the CASA project, including its problems.<\/p>\n

“What I take away from the last few weeks is that the previous administration knew that the project would cost $600 million. I didn’t know that,” said Bonnardel.<\/p>\n

Bonnardel’s\u00a0testimony will continue on Friday and current Transport Minister\u00a0Genevi\u00e8ve Guilbault\u00a0is also expected to face questioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The inquiry’s report is\u00a0due by Sept. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly four months since the start of the\u00a0public inquiry into the failed rollout of SAAQclic, Quebec’s former transport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-88028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88028","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=88028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}