Éric Caire pleads for the Department of Cybersecurity and Digital to have nothing to do with the SAAQ setbacks. In fact, he feels he should have received credit for his part in the project.
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“It’s a SAAQ project, designed by SAAQ and managed by SAAQ, so it’s up to them to explain what’s going on and what they’re going to do to resolve the situation,” he said Wednesday in an interview with TVA Innovations.
The minister considers that he has nothing to blame in this file since his ministry did not exist when the creation of the SAAQclic platform was approved in 2018.
“The Department of Cybersecurity arrived on January 1, 2022, he stressed. So the CASA project had been running for 4 years when we arrived.
Remember that if the Department of Cybersecurity and Digital has indeed just blown out its first candle, Éric Caire was Minister Delegate for Digital Transformation from 2018 to 2022.
After establishing his ministry earlier this year and then campaigning for elections, Eric Caire finally contacted SAAQ a few months ago and was then assured that everything was fine.
“In the fall I made RFIs and the ads we were shown were green. So I’m very surprised about the situation,” he said.
In addition, the Minister notes that it is important to distinguish between the SAAQclic project, which falls under the SAAQ, and the State Authentication Service (SAG), which is used by the SAAQ and is the “gateway” to the other services of the digital government will represent.
“I would like to say that there is no problem at the level of the SAG. What we’re seeing is people who don’t use it say it’s complicated, but people who use it say, “Finally, it’s not that complicated, it’s well done, it’s done quickly,” said he.
“Actually, we should have received praise for this project, but that didn’t happen visibly,” he added.
The fact is that despite the considerable number of accounts opened, there have not yet been any security accidents. “And it’s probably not because there aren’t people who have tried,” he said.
The Minister believes that the SAAQ’s problems can be explained by the three-week closure in February, because it resulted in “a pile of late files”. There are also “a number of bugs to deal with”. “The accumulation of everything that gives us the situation that we have,” he explained.
According to Éric Caire, the role of the Ministry of Cybersecurity in this file is limited to “supporting” the state-owned company. “We can help them, we can offer them resources and solutions, but it remains a project driven by SAAQ,” he noted.
As the digital transformation will also spread to other government services in the coming months, the minister is drawing lessons from the past few weeks.
“We have to understand that now, IT projects, we don’t do mammoth projects anymore,” he said.
From his point of view, the state authentication service is a “first building block” in the building of digital transformation.
“More blocks will come,” Mr. Cairo recalled. The digital wallet, secure communication, change of address etc. We divided the project into several blocks, we deliver a first block, we make sure it goes well and after that we build on a solid foundation.
The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay, expressed outrage at Éric Caire’s exit in a message posted to Twitter.
“This morning Geneviève Guilbault said that IT delivery at SAAQ is the responsibility of Éric Caire. At LCN, he washes his hands and now blames the officials. Mr Legault, is there someone responsible in your government? he wrote.