Wiped out after last winter’s fiasco, the former SAAQ boss has been given an ambitious new mandate: to unclog Quebec’s courthouses.
• Read also: Painful digital transformation: SAAQ CEO Denis Marsolais loses his job
Denis Marsolais was fired by the CAQ government in April following the catastrophic deployment of the SAAQclic digital portal. After closing the offices of the state corporation for three weeks, Quebecers had come up against numerous technical problems and long queues outside, in the middle of winter.
First sent to the Ministry of the Economy, Mr. Marsolais has just been assigned to the Ministry of Justice in order to “support the deputy minister in mandates related to the reduction of delays in criminal and penal matters”.
The state mandarin retains his salary at the time at the SAAQ, or $253,942 annually.
He will be responsible for the Table Justice-Québec, a forum that brings together the main players in the legal community and whose work resumed after the recent agreement between Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette and the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau. .
This agreement, which came after months of confrontation between the executive and judicial powers, provides for the creation of 14 new judge posts and an increase in the pace of the judiciary.
The Table will now have to identify and implement the measures that will “promote access to justice and contribute to the reduction of delays”.
Difficult passage at the SAAQ
To explain the dismissal of Denis Marsolais, last April, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, had declared that a CEO must deliver services to citizens and that these had “been altered”.
“The big problem we experienced was the fact that the leaders of the SAAQ – and we changed the president – did not plan, during the reopening, for there to be more staff because , obviously, after three weeks, we had to expect a greater influx, ”summarized in turn the Prime Minister François Legault during his end-of-session report, at the beginning of June.
Trust
The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is convinced that Mr. Marsolais, despite his recent setbacks, is the man for the job. The senior official, he argues, has a long track record.
Denis Marsolais will also be in familiar territory: he was Deputy Minister of Justice, a ministry to which he returned a few years later to manage the modernization of Justice, in addition to having been President of the Chamber of Notaries .
“He knows the legal field very well and we are very happy to welcome him to the Ministry of Justice. He is someone who is competent, who is hardworking, above all,” says Mr. Jolin-Barrette.
“So, there have been some difficulties at the SAAQ that everyone knows about, but it has my full confidence,” added the minister.
The SAAQclic brothel
- Difficulties in registering a vehicle
- Invalid appointment for driver’s license
- Problems selling your car
- Statements of offense despite a paid permit
- Long delays for online service
- Queues of several hours on site