Karl Malenfant Faces Setback in Legal Fee Battle with SAAQ
So here’s what’s happening with Karl Malenfant and the ongoing fallout from the SAAQclic fiasco in Quebec — and it’s pretty intense.
Karl Malenfant, the former vice-president of digital experience at the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), has been at the center of controversy surrounding the troubled SAAQclic modernization project. This is the same project that ballooned in cost — we’re talking over $1 billion — with at least $500 million in overruns. Malenfant, who retired in early 2024, was one of the key figures responsible for leading that digital overhaul.
Now, because of this, he’s been called to testify before the Gallant Commission — a public inquiry looking into what exactly went wrong with SAAQclic. But here’s the twist: he’s also been fighting to have his full legal fees covered by the SAAQ. While the organization has agreed to pay up to $125,000 toward his legal costs, Malenfant argues that this cap is unfair and that the government should foot the entire bill, regardless of how high it goes.
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To challenge the cap, he filed a legal complaint in July with the Commission de la fonction publique (CFP), hoping they would force the SAAQ to cover 100% of his legal fees. But this week, that request was firmly shut down. The CFP ruled that they don’t even have the authority to hear his case. Why? Because Malenfant wasn’t officially considered a public servant under Quebec’s Public Service Act — he was an executive appointed under a different law. So basically, the tribunal said, “Sorry, not our jurisdiction.”
This marks yet another legal blow for Malenfant. Just last month, the Commission also denied him participant status in the inquiry — a move that means he won’t be able to cross-examine other witnesses during the public hearings. And then, just this week, he was forced to undergo a closed-door interrogation by investigators, something he had tried to avoid, arguing instead for a public hearing to clear his name.
As it stands, Malenfant is expected to testify publicly between mid-September and early October. Who else will be called? That’s still unclear, but the Commission’s work is expected to continue through December.
So while Malenfant might have once been in charge of SAAQclic, he’s now very much on the defensive — legally, publicly, and reputationally. And the story is far from over.
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