The flagship of the digital Québec techno economy, responsible for the accelerated IT training program 42 Québec, will close its doors on July 31, 2024. The Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity refuses to renew vital funding, arguing that the organization “knows the reasons” for this decision.
Reasons which seem very opaque in the eyes of the leaders of Quebec digital, who cannot explain the government’s stubbornness in this matter. Asked by email by The dutythe interim president of the board of Québec digital, Martine Rioux, tells a story that Kafka would not have denied.
” The why [de bloquer le financement] was never clear, she replies. We have asked several times to speak with them to find out more and understand the “irregularities”, but for a year, they have only asked us for documents without giving us feedback. There was no dialogue or collaboration. Investigators requested again on Monday a huge list of documents that go as far back as 2017, well before the start of the 42 Quebec project. »
For more than a dozen years, Québec digital has been organizing events that are the pride of professionals in the Quebec digital sector, including the Web conference in Québec (WAQ) and the Semaine numériQC. The organization has been waiting since September 2023 for funding of $500,000 from the Legault government to complete the budget for the 42 Québec training program. An additional sum of $1 million was expected subsequently. This one was not paid either.
42 Québec has had a “campus” in the Saint-Roch district, in Québec, since 2021. Its model reproduces that of 42 Paris, also recreated since 2013 in around forty other cities around the world. The accelerated training offered is not recognized by the government, but it allows its participants to develop expertise that is highly valued in the job market in less than 18 months. The placement rate of the approximately 700 people who completed the program is close to 100%.
Unexplained “irregularities”
Questioned by The dutya spokesperson for the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity explained that “as part of the annual audit of the Workforce Skills Development and Recognition Fund, possible irregularities appeared which led the ministry to undertake audits on the management of the subsidy granted to Québec digital for the 42 Québec project.
Québec digital assures, in a post on its website announcing its early closure, that “in no case have the sums coming from the public been used for anything other than 42 Québec”.
The government confirms having communicated “several times” with Québec digital in order to take stock of how the sums given to it were managed, but it refuses to indicate what irregularities it discovered, “for reasons of confidentiality and in order not to harm the administrative investigation.
It was also after reviewing “all available accountability” that the ministry launched an administrative investigation. “The ministry must be rigorous in the management of public funds,” concludes its spokesperson, in the wake of a 2024-2025 provincial budget whose record deficit of 11 billion dollars forces the Legault government to tighten your seatbelt.
An administrative investigation requires speaking individually with all the people directly or indirectly concerned by a situation that affects the work of civil servants. Depending on the definition given by the Public Service Commission, it generally lasts between one and six months.
In this case, the investigation has blocked public funding for 42 Quebec since last fall. As it is the subject of an investigation, Québec digital explains that it cannot obtain any other form of public funding for its training program.
“The inexplicable position of the ministry demobilized several partners and sowed doubt about the initiative, limiting the involvement of many other potential collaborators and thus contributing to the death of this innovative project,” concludes the co-founder of Québec digital Joé Bussière.