Quebec Premier François Legault told a public inquiry on Tuesday that he knew nothing about the $500-million cost overrun tied to digitization efforts at the province’s auto-insurance board until it became public knowledge in February.
Mr. Legault’s appearance before the Gallant commission into mismanagement and alleged cover-ups at the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec 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.
The province’s 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’t.
“Should I have known? I think so, yes,” Mr. Legault said. “Someone should have informed me.”
Testifying before a public inquiry – which was struck after a blistering Auditor-General’s report in February – was seen as a chance for the Premier to either stabilize or sink his political fortunes ahead of a promised cabinet shuffle.
Mr. Legault’s centrist, nationalist Coalition Avenir Québec party has fallen behind the older political brands of the Parti Québécois and the provincial Liberals, with an election looming next fall.
In a press conference, Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez framed Mr. Legault’s appearance before judge Denis Gallant as a no-win proposition for his rival: In the event the Premier didn’t 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.
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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 “poorly negotiated” agreement put the onus on the SAAQ, rather than the IT contractors, for cost overruns and problems with implementation, he said.
Disarray at the public auto insurer burst into the public consciousness in February, 2023, when digital hiccups led to long lines for driver’s licence renewals and left some Quebeckers waiting outside in the cold. The spectacle eventually prompted the Auditor-General’s report that found the digitization effort cost more than $1-billion, with delays and design flaws bureaucrats hid from their political bosses.
The findings were especially harmful to Mr. Legault’s government, which has emphasized its economic credentials and sound management of government finances. Éric 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.
The opposition Liberals have now called for the resignation of two more cabinet ministers for their roles in the scandal, including deputy premier Geneviève Guilbault, for claiming during her testimony before the inquiry that she wasn’t warned about the exploding costs at the insurer, then reversing herself when confronted with documentary evidence to the contrary.
Further escalating matters, police have identified four suspects in an anti-corruption investigation targeting SAAQclic, according to the newspaper La Presse.
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’s protestations, it was “very hard to believe” he didn’t know earlier about the cost overruns.
