Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault is cutting short her trip to Europe so she can return to the province to help resolve the customer service crisis rocking the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ).
The decision was confirmed Tuesday to The Canadian Press by Louis-Julien Dufresne, a spokesperson for Guilbault.
The SAAQ, the government body responsible for licensing drivers and providing public auto insurance in Quebec, underwent a digital overhaul for several weeks.
The new online platform was supposed to be fully up and running by Feb. 20, but that isn’t the case. The SAAQ now says it could take until the end of April for services to be fully restored.
As a result, there have been service delays and long lines of angry customers that stretch around the building at several SAAQ outlets.
Last week, Guilbeault announced a battle of additional measures — including extending opening hours and hiring 150 more employees to help drivers.
But clients told Global News this week the mitigation plan has done little to resolve the ongoing issues and long wait times.
The SAAQ’s digital platform was supposed to allow customers to carry out most transactions online. Since its launch on Feb. 20, about 103,000 Quebecers have successfully used it among the 335,000 customers served.
— with files from Global News’ Gloria Henriquez and Kalina Laframboise