driver's licence fees go up, and so does big wasteful project, critics say
Quebec's auto-insurance board, known as the SAAQ, is spending 40 million to expand its headquarters...something the opposition says is a big waste of money and the reason for fee hikes.
The auto insurance board will more than double to cost of a driver's licence between 2006 to 2010.
Agnes Maltais, with the Parti Quebecois, says the fee hikes are paying for an expansion project that isn't even needed.
"listen, this project has been refused by government before," she says. "It's injustified. Totally injustified."
Four years ago, a former president of the insurance board said his agency was fine without an expansion.
But transport minister Julie Boulet says the project will save money. "450 workers are spread out in rental properties across the SAAQ's territory," she says, adding that the agency spends more than 1.2 million in rent per year. Bringing all employees to work under one roof would save 15 million dollars over 25 years, she says. "There is important siginficant savings that will let the SAAQ to be more effective in all its work"
However, it is important to note that the ministers math does not add up. If the SAAQ spends 1.2 million a year on rent, that adds up to 30 million over 25 years. A 40-million dollar expansion would not, then, appear to save the agency any money.
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