Quebec fires SAAQ CEO

The failure of the SAAQclic will cost Mr. Marsaulays his position, who was appointed by the Legault government in 2021. A senior career civil servant, he was already Secretary-General of the Province of Quebec, and Deputy Minister of Justice, Public Security, and Transportation.

In mid-March, François Legault denounced “serious planning shortcomings” on the part of the SAAQ and asked for an evaluation of the work of the board of directors and the senior chairman of this state-owned company.

For the Legault government, the Minister for Cyber ​​and Digital Security, Eric Kayer, was uninvolved in the failures of this transition, which forced driver’s license holders to park outside SAAQ branches to pay for renewals.

The Minister of Transport, Genevieve Guilbault, even had to cut short a trip to Europe to come and sort out the crisis. It had announced a series of emergency measures, including a grace period for drivers of cars and trucks who are unable to renew their licence.

François Legault directly blamed the state company, which closed its premises for about a month in preparation for the digital transformation. “We cannot think that we will be closing our offices for three weeks, and that the day we return, there will be no effect,” he said.

The Prime Minister had claimed that Crown was behind the closure without providing a transition plan. He explained Mr. Cairo, who believes that he has “only an advisory role in the digital transformation of both ministries and state companies.”