The computer crisis that hit the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) cost more than $41 million, largely due to the hundreds of hires that were necessary to improve the service offered in the centers. organization services across the province.
The failures associated with the implementation of the SAAQclic computer system last February led to significant delays in processing the files of thousands of clients of the state company, which had to implement various measures in the following months to reduce waiting times for its customers across the province.
Last May, the president and CEO of the SAAQ, Éric Ducharme, reported expenses totaling at least $2.6 million in overtime to pay employees called in for reinforcements during the crisis. This amount allocated to overtime has since increased to $6 million, Mr. Ducharme mentioned on Tuesday on the sidelines of a press conference in Montreal.
Added to this are expenses of $28 million in annual salaries associated with the hiring of 465 people at the SAAQ, whose number of employees has increased by more than 10% in recent months to reduce the time of expectations of its customers.
“We had to have more hours of service and more employees. There was a cost for that. If I had to do it again, I would do it without hesitation because we had to increase the capacity,” argued Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, present at this press conference alongside Mr. Ducharme. “I don’t think we could have avoided these costs because it would have been on the backs of taxpayers,” who suffered the repercussions of a “fairly eventful year at the SAAQ,” continued the minister.
In addition, $2.9 million was allocated to the hiring of security agents in the organization’s various service centers, as well as $4.4 million for “communication” efforts. indicated Mr. Ducharme. The total bill for this IT crisis thus reached $41.3 million.
Fortunately, this storm is largely behind us, said Mr. Ducharme. “We are practically where we want to be with the new system” from SAAQclic, he said, while recognizing that the organization he leads will have to learn lessons from this IT crisis. “We perhaps want to better plan mitigation measures if there are issues,” he said, at the moment the new computer system has still had some hiccups in recent weeks.
The SAAQclic service will also be unusable for part of the weekend due to maintenance work, the organization’s website indicated on Tuesday.
A new service center
Certain delays in access to SAAQ services continue to be felt in the greater Montreal region, which finds itself lagging behind the rest of Quebec in its efforts to recover from the impacts of this IT crisis. .
The time to obtain service when you go to a SAAQ counter is on average 19 minutes in the province, but 26 minutes in the greater Montreal area, indicated Mme Guilbault. “So we see that here, there is an additional delay,” she mentioned.
To remedy this situation, a sixth service center will be operational from February 2024 in the greater Montreal region. This will see the light of day in Place Versailles, a shopping center located in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, near the Radisson metro station and several major roads. “It’s a very strategic location that will allow us to almost double the availability of meetings in the Montreal region,” argued M.me Guilbault.
More precisely, the number of appointments offered daily in the metropolitan region should increase from 1,390 to more than 2,500, the minister mentioned. This service center will employ 70 employees and will have around forty counters that can accommodate customers.
Low-cost permits
Quebec will also sacrifice $600 million in revenue that it could have earned next year by paying for the renewal of the driving licenses of motorists in the province by reducing for a third consecutive year the fees that will be paid to them. required. The cost of a driving license will thus be $25.50 in 2024 in the province, which represents a saving of $101.55 for Class 5 license holders.
“It’s a little more than $100 net that will go into the pockets of permit holders,” summarized Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault. This savings will reach $186.50 for license holders who combine classes 5 and 6.