“Less waiting and uncertainty, fewer hours spent on the phone, less paperwork and complicated procedures. The verdant digital valleys promised by Éric Caire at the launch of the government’s digital transformation strategy in 2019 are experiencing their first test of reality with the crisis that is shaking the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ).
Emerging from his silence on Wednesday evening, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital defended his new Government Authentication Service (SAG) to which is added – in the greatest pain – the SAAQclic computer platform which causes so many headaches for Quebecers . According to him, the SAAQ can only blame itself for the chaos that has set in, its SAG having nothing to reproach itself for. We only give it reprimands, the Crown corporation deserves several.
The interminable queues and service delays since the launch of SAAQclic on February 20 are inexcusable. Quebecers have tasted the queues at the pharmacy or in the screening centers during the pandemic. Last summer, they lived through the pangs of the quasi-Soviet queues of the passport crisis. Undue waiting in the emergency room and in other services such as surgery or mental health put their limits to the test every day. Their reserve of patience is dry.
It is true that replacing 300 old computer systems accumulated by a single centralized system to manage more than 10 billion data is a huge contract. The transfer of said data also forced the SAAQ to idle from January 26 to February 19. We have to admit that this period of time was insufficient and that the big leap was made prematurely.
However, the alarm bell had been sounded by the employees. The direction has all the same dark. She lacked planning, but above all anticipation, listening and vision. She will have to explain herself, just like her business partner, LGS, an IBM company.
This does not clear the Legault government, however. The speed with which the Prime Minister reacted suggests that he knows this very well. Unlike Justin Trudeau, who took weeks to take the problem of passports by the horns, François Legault has proven that annoyance can move mountains… and ministers. The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, cut short her mission in Europe to shake the chips of the prime contractors from this failure.
Woman of action, Mme Guilbault has implemented a number of structuring actions that will allow Quebecers to go through the SAAQ’s digital transition without tearing their remaining hair out. The turbulence could stretch until the end of April. In the meantime, the employees will take a breather. This is very good.
The exit of Mr. Cairo still casts a shadow on the rest of things. Even admitting that its SAG has none of the faults that some attribute to it – which we doubt, otherwise why agree to simplify it to face the crisis? — he and SAAQclic are inextricably linked. The platform is indeed the first to be integrated into this digital data protection tool intended to replace clicSÉQUR.
And that’s the rub. The Legault government is immersed in a titanic and inevitable digital transformation. Each passing month digs into an increasingly embarrassing technological lag. The SAAQ is “patient zero”, and it has a duty to investigate to see how it can avoid a repeat. The large pool of Crown corporations will follow, and the challenges there promise to be great.
In 2021, the Auditor General of Quebec was concerned to see that Héma-Québec had not made a “technological and digital shift”. In 2020, it was the Commission de la construction du Québec which admitted a technological delay requiring a corresponding construction site. And we are not even talking about the delay of much more complex systems in sectors as essential as justice or health.
Watching over this transition is precisely one of Mr. Cairo’s duties. As an “indispensable partner of public bodies”, his young ministry’s mission is to “develop skills”, “optimize services” and “enhance their quality”. Its task is certainly complicated by the difficulty of recruiting specialized personnel and the need to develop suitable solutions which force the use of subcontractors. With the possible failures that we know.
However, the Minister tells us that the SAAQ’s digital transition is failing miserably in terms of efficiency while succeeding in terms of data protection. If he is right to want to reassure us about the solidity of the SAG, Mr. Caire wanders trying to believe that the failure of SAAQclic does not affect him in any way. The transition of Quebecers to a digital identity will take place in exact balance between these two tensions. Failing that, crises will multiply, and the minister, who is in charge of them, can only blame himself.