In an unprecedented move that has sent ripples through Quebec’s government institutions, Premier François Legault has called for an anti-corruption investigation into the province’s automobile insurance board (SAAQ), following a series of suspicious activities discovered during the troubled rollout of its online services platform.
The Premier’s announcement came Wednesday after internal documents revealed potentially fraudulent practices in the development of the SAAQ’s digital transformation project, SAAQclic. The $458 million initiative, which faced widespread criticism after its February 2023 launch led to massive service disruptions, is now under scrutiny for possible corruption involving government contractors and officials.
“When there’s smoke, we need to check if there’s fire,” Legault told reporters at the National Assembly. “The integrity of our public institutions must be beyond reproach, and Quebecers deserve complete transparency on how their tax dollars were spent on this project.”
According to government sources familiar with the matter, the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC), Quebec’s anti-corruption unit, will examine contracts awarded during the platform’s development phase between 2019 and 2022. Initial findings suggest inflated billing practices, questionable tender processes, and potential conflicts of interest involving senior officials within the SAAQ’s technology division.
Opposition parties have seized on the controversy, with Québec Solidaire’s Vincent Marissal calling it “another example of mismanagement” in the CAQ government’s approach to digital transformation. “We’re talking about hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars potentially misappropriated while citizens were left waiting in line for basic services,” Marissal said during question period.
The SAAQclic platform, which was meant to modernize Quebec’s vehicle registration and licensing services, instead created chaos when it launched last year. Citizens faced wait times of up to 10 hours at SAAQ offices, while the online system suffered from persistent technical issues and security vulnerabilities that temporarily exposed sensitive personal information.
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, who oversees the SAAQ, has promised full cooperation with investigators. “We’ve already implemented stricter controls on IT projects across government departments,” Guilbault stated. “But if corruption occurred, those responsible will face serious consequences, regardless of their position.”
Technology experts point to this case as emblematic of broader challenges in government digital transformation efforts. “Large-scale IT projects often become vulnerable to corruption when oversight is inadequate,” explains Dr. Benoit Dupont, cybersecurity professor at the Université de Montréal. “The complexity of these systems makes it easier to hide irregularities in coding, testing, and implementation phases.”
For ordinary Quebecers like Montrealer Jeanne Tremblay, who spent three days trying to renew her driver’s license last year, the investigation brings little comfort. “It’s infuriating to think we not only suffered through a dysfunctional system, but that corruption might have been behind it all,” she said. “We trusted our government to manage this properly.”
As UPAC begins its investigation, questions remain about how deep the alleged corruption extends and whether it affected other government technology initiatives. With Quebec’s ambitious digital transformation agenda continuing across multiple departments, how can citizens trust that future projects won’t face similar issues of mismanagement and potential corruption?
