The Minister of Digital, Éric Caire, who is trying to “scroll” in the “fiasco” at the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), must come and explain himself to the parliamentary committee, believes the official opposition.
The Liberal MP for Mount-Royal–Outremont, Michelle Setlakwe, sent a request for an initiative order to the Committee on Public Finance on Thursday.
She says she wants to “obtain the findings” of the actors involved in the digital mess at the SAAQ “with a view to learning lessons in order to avoid another failure of the CAQ government”.
In addition to the Minister of Digital, the Liberal opposition wants to hear Deputy Minister Pierre E. Rodrigue, as well as the President and CEO of the SAAQ, Denis Marsolais.
She makes no mention of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, but adds in her request that we could hear from other people “likely to shed relevant light”.
On February 20, the SAAQ launched a new digital platform, SAAQclic, which has experienced several failures, forcing customers to queue for long hours at the various points of service.
Prime Minister François Legault deplored the situation, before Minister Guilbault was forced to cut short her trip to Europe to come and manage the crisis. She implied that Mr. Cairo was responsible.
On Wednesday, Éric Caire came out of his silence. In an interview with Radio-Canada, he exonerated his department of any responsibility in this file. “The ministry is not involved in SAAQclic,” he said.
What is it for, Eric Caire?
However, it is clearly indicated in his mandate that he must support public bodies in their digital transformation, underlines in an interview the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay.
He recalls that Mr. Caire claimed to have met with the SAAQ last November.
“He obviously didn’t do his “job” in November 2022. He looked at the SAAQ’s presentation, probably in glossy color paper, everything was green, it’s going well, go, claim $200, good deployment!
“What is Eric Caire for? Why do we pay him as minister responsible for digital? Let him go reread his mission. We pay him so that he asks all the questions,” insisted Mr. Tanguay.
“He is responsible for digital! ” he added.
According to Mr. Tanguay, the CAQ government is made up of ministers “for whom it is never their fault, they are never responsible for anything, and in the end, it is the citizens who do not have the service “.
For his part, the spokesperson for Québec solidaire en transports, Étienne Grandmont, made a point of recalling that the Coalition avenir Québec has been in charge since 2018.
“During all this time, the CAQ ministers have never seen fit to put their noses in their government’s biggest digital transition operation,” he was surprised on Twitter.
“What bad theatre! No one is fooled. And it is all Quebecers who pay for the government’s negligence, ”also tweeted Joël Arseneau, of the Parti québécois.