SAAQclic a total failure, hundreds of millions over budget, auditor general finds
Decision-makers knew system wasn’t ready but launched it anyways
The online SAAQclic system was a total failure and threw Quebec's automobile insurance board into upheaval, the province's auditor general said in a report released Thursday.
Guylaine Leclerc, the auditor general, also found that the insurance board, known as the SAAQ, blew through the budget allocated to the new digital systems by at least $500 million — and has nothing to show for it. Two years later, the SAAQclic system still doesn't work properly.
"There was no indication that this system functioned correctly," Leclerc's office wrote in a media release.
Leclerc's report was the most damning indictment yet of the SAAQ's deployment of the digital SAAQclic platform, which has frustrated users and been riddled with problems.
Leclerc found that in 2017, when the SAAQ began an attempt to digitize its services, it budgeted $638 million over a 10-year period to, among other things, build the online SAAQclic platform.
The true cost of the SAAQ's digitization attempt is now likely to climb over $1.1 billion, Leclerc found.
The SAAQ intended for people to use the platform for things like renewing their licence or scheduling their driver's test, saving them an in-person trip to a SAAQ office.
But before it launched, the decision-makers at the SAAQ ignored warning signs that the system wasn't ready, Leclerc's report said.
Companies flagged issues with the platform to the SAAQ and tests that were supposed to have been conducted on the system weren't done.
The SAAQ launched the system regardless.
But users and companies immediately panned it as impractical and riddled with problems.
Leclerc's report found that after SAAQclic's launch, the number of people who travelled to SAAQ outlets actually increased — and the system was so hard to use that it had fewer users than the SAAQ's website before SAAQclic was implemented.
The launch of SAAQclic wreaked havoc on the SAAQ's finances to such an extent, Leclerc's office said it was unable to get an accurate picture of the Crown corporation's finances for the 2023 financial year.
In Leclerc's report, the SAAQ defended itself. It acknowledged her findings but said customer satisfaction had increased "since the digital transformation."
Minister says government was misled
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault told reporters in Quebec City on Thursday that she was unaware the situation at the SAAQ was so dire.
She accused the bureaucrats in charge of the SAAQ of intentionally misleading her and other elected officials about the state of the SAAQ's finances and the rollout of SAAQclic.
"We received information that was at best incomplete and at worst incorrect," she said, calling the situation "unacceptable" and "outrageous."
"We need to shine more light on this. Who exactly did this? Who was responsible for this? Personally, I was not aware of this."
She said the primary blame for the online platform's disaster lies with the SAAQ's leaders, not with the government. Guilbault has been transport minister since October 2022. She said by the time she took on the role, the SAAQ's digital transformation was already underway.
The government fired the SAAQ's president and CEO, Denis Marsolais, in April 2023. Guilbault suggested that there may be more people responsible for the SAAQclic failure who need to be fired.
"We need to clean house," she said.
Current SAAQ head responds
Éric Ducharme, the current president and CEO of the SAAQ, acknowledged that the lack of transparency, particularly from a public organization, is unacceptable but said he has full confidence in the people he currently works with.
"I don't want to accuse my predecessors, but I have not seen this in my 34 years of public service," he said.
In response to Guilbault's comments about cleaning house, Ducharme said that since his arrival, a majority of the people in charge at the SAAQ while the online platform was being developed have left the corporation.
Ducharme said most problems have been fixed and he is undecided whether he will launch a formal investigation into what went wrong with SAAQclic.
He also justified the $500 million cost overrun as being tied to future maintenance costs.
"These annual costs are like when you buy a car," he said, "and there are oil changes and tire changes to be done. We need to consider that over the whole lifespan [of the system]."
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