Quebec City, Quebec -- A public inquiry into Quebec’s automobile insurance board, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec, has revealed that the cost of a digital overhaul project cost the province $500 million more than expected.
The SAAQclic project was originally devised to streamline services like driver’s tests and license renewals through the development of a digital platform. When the platform launched, it caused widespread annoyance among users and many collision repair facilities.
The launch of SAAQClic involved replacing the old computer system with a new digital platform. During the transition, there was an extended service outage, with the system being down or unreliable for weeks.
Because collision repair facilities in Quebec rely on SAAQ services to verify vehicle ownership, process salvage and coordinate repairs on vehicles involved in insurance claims, the outage meant repairers couldn’t access necessary data.
Collision repair shops had to deal with inconsistent or unavailable documentation, slowing down workflow and hurting customer service and profitability. Insurers were also impacted by the outage, which in turn delayed payouts and vehicle authorizations, compounding issues for repair shops waiting to be paid or to begin work.
On Monday, the province’s interim auditor general Alain Fortin told the public inquiry that the project, initially budgeted at $638 million over 10 years in 2017, actually cost at least $1.1 billion.
Fortin also indicated his audit was based on figures from 2017. He added that the SAAQ had failed to track operating costs in more recent years and indicated the true cost could be far higher. He also warned that even more spending would likely be required in order to ensure the project’s eventual successful completion.
Many of the figures Fortin provided to Quebec’s Legislative Assembly were initially published in a report written by his predecessor, Guylaine Leclerc.
In February, Leclerc found that the SAAQ overshot its budget by at least $500 million and has produced a system that ‘still doesn’t work properly.’
“There was no indication that this system functioned correctly,” her office wrote in an official media release.
Leclerc also concluded that the SAAQ had received warnings from many companies and users about the problems with the digital platform before its launch. After the launch, the number of people who travelled to SAAQ outlets actually increased, with the system so difficult to use that it had fewer users than the SAAQ website before SAAQclic was implemented.
The inquiry is expected to conclude in September.
