The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, admits that the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) has poorly planned its digital transition and poorly communicated the implications of this transition to users.
However, she refuses, at least for now, to blame the leaders of the state corporation, but promises that a retrospective analysis will shed light on the failures of this transition and the responsibility of its architects.
Passing through a Montreal branch of the SAAQ on Friday morning, Ms. Guilbault announced a new measure, namely the extension until June 1 of the validity of driving licenses that had expired between January 26 and March 9. This measure is in addition to a series of other accommodations aimed at not penalizing the government corporation’s clientele.
Ms. Guilbault had come to meet the employees of the branch in order, on the one hand, to thank the employees for the additional effort imposed on them by this transition and its implementation difficulties, but also to take the pulse of the measures already announced. She assures that these measures, in particular the grace period of three months granted to holders of expired permits and the extension until the end of August for the conversion of international permits, have made it possible to considerably reduce the pressure.
In addition, she affirms that the SAAQ has prioritized the files of truckers and taxi drivers so that they, whose work requires a valid license, are not penalized by undue delays.
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