Getty Images/iStockphoto Half of the roads under the Ministry of Transport are in poor condition, denounces auditor Guylaine Leclerc in her report.
Half of the roads under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport are in poor condition, denounces Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc in her report where we learn that it is in Abitibi-Témiscamingue where we find the worst situation.
In 2022, no less than 65.1% of Abitibi-Témiscamingue roads were in poor condition. And the proportion of damaged roads also exceeds 50% in six other regions: Chaudière-Appalaches, Outaouais, Estrie, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Laurentides-Lanaudière and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
Conversely, only a third of the network needs to be monitored in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, on the North Shore and in the Quebec region.
The majority of roads in Quebec were built in the 1960s and 1970s. In her report presented Thursday, the Auditor General criticizes the Ministry of Transport for delaying restoring the road network. Thus, between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of degraded roads increased by 8.9% to reach more than 8,000 kilometers in total.
“At the rate at which the [ministry] carries out its reconstruction and major rehabilitation currently, the restoration of its roadways will take more than 25 years,” she writes.
The auditor's analysis further shows that the problem is not new since the proportion of roads in poor condition has hovered around 50% since at least 2018.
“There is no “short-term security issues,” Ms. Leclerc said at a press conference. But measures are not taken to ensure that in the long term our resources will be sustainable.
Energy diverted towards emergency works, new roads and temporary measures
How can we explain such results? The auditor points out the insufficiency of financial resources and the lack of internal human resources and suppliers. She also mentions that emergency work caused by climate change can cause postponements.
A large part of the available budgets are also taken up by the construction of new roads, also points out Guylaine Leclerc.
p>
She also criticizes the planning methods of the ministry and some of its regional directorates. She is surprised, for example, that temporary security work is being carried out on segments of the road without planning any major intervention in the same place in the years that follow.
The ministry defends itself
The Ministry of Transport “welcomes” the auditor’s recommendations. But he argues that Quebec's road network subjects it to challenges that “few road administrations” face “in the world” due to the weather, the size of the territory and the low density of the population.< /p>
He also mentions that the planning tools recommended by the auditor, although relevant, are not used by any government.
He concedes, however, that it is difficult for him to reconcile the work of major rehabilitation with the rest of the interventions required in the network.
Flaws to protect personal data in the health network
On another subject, the auditor notes, in the same report, that health establishments do not sufficiently control access to the personal information of users of the health network. health network.
Therefore, the authorities are not able to ensure that the data is only consulted by personnel whose functions require it. The auditor recommends in particular that the ministry “improve controls” and “strengthen security measures.”
Her report also criticizes the legal aid plan, which does not always properly evaluate the financial eligibility of applicants and where services are sometimes difficult to access or deficient.
A final audit report finally confirms the failure of Services Québec to achieve its mission. This multi-service window created by the government in 2004 aimed to simplify interactions between citizens and the State. However, 20 years later, she finds that the results are mixed.