Sarah Mills: The magic of a good, old-fashioned letter
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MONTREAL — Quebec’s auto insurance board announced Saturday it will lift its secrecy policies to comply with a police investigation regarding hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns.
This comes after it was revealed Thursday it had allegedly refused to hand over documents to Quebec’s anti-corruption police force on the grounds of attorney-client privilege, prompting harsh reaction from Premier François Legault.
In a statement, the auto board confirmed its board of directors met Saturday morning to ratify pausing the state-owned corporation’s strict rules on professional secrecy.
“We are all driven by a single goal: the search for the truth,” Dominique Savoie, chair of the board, said in the statement. “As soon as we were made aware of the issue of access to certain documents, both the interim president and CEO, and our board of directors, took the necessary steps to resolve the matter quickly.”
The corporation has been mired in controversy for months, after Quebec’s auditor general found that its online platform SAAQclic was expected to cost $500 million more than expected.
The overruns are now the subject of a public inquiry, known as the Gallant Commission, which is expected to include testimony from Legault on Tuesday.
The auto board said the disclosure of documents will also aid the ongoing inquiry.
“We welcome anything that will help the Commission in its important mandate to seek the truth,” said its spokesperson, Joanne Marceau, in an email on Saturday.
Quebec’s public procurement authority, which had been ordered to look into its public contract awarding process, will also be able to access the newly available documents.
The SAAQclic online platform was aimed at simplifying appointment scheduling and other routine tasks at the auto-insurance board, but wasn’t as effective as hoped.
In 2023, problems with accomplishing basic tasks using the platform led to backlogs, prompting crowds of drivers to line up at offices all over the province.
Quebec’s Minister of Transport Geneviève Guilbault also welcomed the board of directors’ decision.
“It was the right thing to do,” she wrote in a post on X.
Earlier this week when the matter was still at an impasse as the auto board pushed to only disclose redacted versions of the sought documents, Guilbault issued a stern social media post following discussions with the board.
“I just spoke with them again and I could not have been any clearer: We do not want ANY obstacles, and I expect all the required documents to be provided promptly,” she wrote in another post on X on Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2025.
The Canadian Press
