The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) will table a motion at the National Assembly calling for the resignation of Minister François Bonnardel, who was allegedly made aware of cost overruns in the SAAQclic project as early as 2021.
French language newspaper Le Devoir revealed Wednesday that Bonnardel, who was Minister of Transport from 2018 to 2022, received information in September 2021 about the cost overruns in the design of the new digital platform for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s (SAAQ).
However, on February 20, he said that he had been “misled” about SAAQclic. According to PLQ parliamentary leader Monsef Derraji, Bonnardel has “lost his credibility in this fiasco by not acting since 2021.”
“He must resign,” he wrote on X, announcing at the same time that his party would table a motion at the National Assembly to demand Bonnardel’s resignation.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, Québec solidaire MNA Vincent Marissal said the SAAQclic scandal was getting worse by the day. He called on Premier François Legault to consider “definitively suspending” Bonnardel.
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“You can’t have half confidence,” he said.
According to Parti Québécois (PQ) MNA Joël Arseneau, the situation for Bonnardel has become “untenable.”
“I call on the premier to show responsibility and restore confidence in his government,” he said.
Much has been written about the SAAQ’s digital transition fiasco since the Auditor General published a report in which it was revealed that the project cost $500 million more than expected, for a total that will exceed $1.1 billion by 2025.
Bonnardel, who is now Minister of Public Safety, argued in the wake of this report that the SAAQ had not given the government the full picture of the extent of the problems that had arisen during the development of SAAQclic.
The current Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, and the former Minister of Digital Affairs, Éric Caire, raised similar arguments. Caire recently resigned when media reports surfaced that he had been in possession of several pieces of information concerning the cost overruns.
The Legault government has launched a public inquiry into the SAAQclic fiasco, to be led by former Charbonneau commission prosecutor Denis Gallant, a disputed appointment.
The PLQ and PQ are asking Gallant to recuse himself, given his proximity to Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel. The two worked closely together as prosecutors on the Charbonneau Commission from 2011 to 2014.
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