2023-05-04 10:31:15
Unfortunately, we learned very little. It is because the Minister of Transport herself, when she was appointed, boarded a train that had almost already arrived at its destination.
Geneviève Guilbault says she received a presentation of the project within two weeks of taking office, but the major decisions had already been made. She was unable to explain how the operation was so poorly planned.
We also haven’t learned much regarding what she did last fall to make sure everything went well, other than relying on the Society’s insurance.
The new president and CEO of the organization was sent to the front several times to answer more specific questions from deputies, but Éric Ducharme quickly lowered expectations, recalling that he had only been in office forworking days”,”text”:”18working days”}}”>18 working days.
The many leaders of the SAAQ sitting next to him weren’t much help either. Result: understanding the logic behind the choices that were made remains difficult and many gray areas persist.
For the rest, the explanations offered were as laborious as they were not very reassuring. According to one maturity assessment with the government repository
carried out in 2021, the SAAQ had a high degree of IT maturity
. The projects she had done so far had gone well. Even better, in a two-axis, four-quadrant matrix
, she was in a very good position. One hardly dares to imagine what would have happened if it had been otherwise.
As a good lawyer, the Liberal MP André Albert Morin multiplied the questions, without however succeeding in completely penetrating the bureaucratic jargon that was served to him. His colleague Étienne Grandmont of Québec solidaire was not much more successful.
Hardly has it been accepted that the working assumptions regarding the use of online and in-branch services turned out to be unrealized
and that the mitigation measures might have been increased
. We at least had the assurance that the lack of staff training was not in question. After 55,000 hours of learning, 94% of employees were confident that they might operate the new system.
What is most worrying is undoubtedly that the protocols and mechanisms put in place to ensure the smooth running of the operation did not allow the flaws to be detected. In other words, we did not know how to perceive the signals or clues that suggested difficulties. On the contrary, all the indicators were green.
We know the rest: the minister and the company were completely taken by surprise when the situation degenerated.
And the former CEO?
After the failure of March, the government quickly chose to dismiss the former president and CEO, Denis Marsolais. SAAQ did not see that by closing its offices for three weeks, there would be a surplus of traffic at the reopening”,”text”:”I do not understand that the management of the SAAQ did not see that in closing its offices for three weeks, there would be a surplus of traffic when it reopens”}}”>I don’t understand that the management of the SAAQ did not see that by closing its offices for three weeks, there would be a surplus of traffic when it reopensexplained François Legault, insisting on the need for the leaders of public bodies to assume the consequences of their actions.
In making this decision, however, the government deprived Quebeckers of some of the explanations that might have helped them better understand what had happened and, above all, to learn from it. Removed from office, Mr. Marsolais never had to explain himself to a parliamentary committee, even if the opposition wanted it.
Certainly the new CEO announced yesterday that his organization and the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital had entrusted PricewaterhouseCoopers with the mandate to carry out an audit of the decision-making process that led to the disappointment of the SAAQ. However, Minister Guilbault did not commit to making the report that will be produced entirely public.
As for the others responsible for this fiasco, we still do not know what will become of them. The new CEO of SAAQ says he wants to take the time to analyze the situation before making changes to his management team.
Ministerial responsibility
In response to questions submitted to her, Minister Guilbault confessed that her computer experience was very, very, very limited, even none
. However, we retain from the exercise that it is not so much the tool itself which is at the origin of the events of last winter as the way in which its implementation was thought out.
The good news for members of the firm is that they won’t need to take up computer science to ensure that the digital shift goes smoothly. Simple management skills will suffice.
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