A first for the Government of Quebec: a woman will take charge of the entire public service. Dominique Savoie will soon be named “general secretary of the executive council”, ie number one of the employees of the State.
A career civil servant, she had been sent to the sensitive post of Deputy Minister of Health at the start of the pandemic; his minister Christian Dubé has repeatedly publicly praised his work. She reached this peak at the age of 63. In the federal government, women have already reached this position of command, called “clerk of the privy council”. This was never the case in Quebec.
She will take the seat of a long-time ally, Yves Ouellet, who had been secretary general since François Legault came to power in 2018. This economist by training, who led the Treasury Board for a long time, will become the president- Chief Executive Officer of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, replacing Louis Morisset, whose term of office ends on 1er July. Everyone wins at the game of musical chairs; Mr. Ouellet earned $387,000 a year, replacing Mr. Morisset who earned $494,000. Mme Savoie was deputy minister with a salary of $310,000 before replacing Mr. Ouellet.
The new distribution of cards comes at a time when the line has become less clear between state mandarins and political cabinets. Last Wednesday at party end of session of the political cabinet of François Legault, we could see several senior officials of the executive council. The border was in the past more rigorously respected. On the sidelines of this gathering, we learned that Jean-François Del Torchio, veteran of the offices of Geneviève Guilbault and Jean-François Roberge, will soon become director of communications at Loto-Québec.
Yves Ouellet’s rise comes as no surprise. That of Dominique Savoie, on the other hand, represents a spectacular comeback.
Mme Savoie was the deputy minister of Robert Poëti, then of Jacques Daoust, Liberal Ministers of Transport under Philippe Couillard, when she found herself at the heart of a media tornado. In 2016, she was pilloried, attacked by Liberal MP Guy Ouellette and especially by Éric Caire, CAQ MP then in opposition. Her former boss Robert Poëti suggested that she had neglected to clean up the process of awarding contracts for this huge ministry.
During question period, Mr. Caire had made charges of a rare aggressiveness – an elected official rarely attacks a civil servant with so much bite, generally turning more towards his political boss. Even François Legault had, in a press briefing, severely criticized this senior official. He had publicly made amends when Mr.me Savoie had been appointed to Health.
In a parliamentary committee at the time, Mme Savoie had tried to clarify the relationship between a minister and his deputy.
“I don’t think that between a minister and a deputy minister, we talk about orders. »
A declaration therefore transposed for a much more catchy headline: “A deputy minister does not have to take orders from his minister! »
The Auditor General and then the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions will look into the administration of Dominique Savoie – all will pass the towel.
But the guillotine was already erected. Dominique Savoie will be sent on a tablet, to the executive council, for two years. Ironically, just before this psychodrama, the Couillard government was preparing to appoint her CEO of Loto-Québec.
Coming from the labor sector, originally a guidance counselor, Dominique Savoie had been Deputy Minister for Employment, where the incumbent at the time, Sam Hamad, had noticed her. The latter had brought her to Transport, where she will be Deputy Minister from 2011 to 2016. She will return after her exile as Deputy Minister of Energy, under the Liberals with Pierre Moreau, then under the Coalition avenir Québec with Jonatan Julien , his last position before arriving at Health, in the summer of 2020.