Citizens who must renew their driver’s license soon will benefit from a 90-day reprieve, announced the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, who hopes that this measure will help ease the crisis that is currently shaking the SAAQ.
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To prevent Quebecers from continuing to pay the costs of the difficult transition of SAAQ services to the SAAQclic digital platform, the Legault government has decided to grant a reprieve to customers of the Crown corporation likely to be directly affected by crisis.
Citizens whose driving license expires between March 9 and June 1, 2023 will therefore have 90 more days, from their anniversary date, to pay for their renewal.
In addition, the validity period of temporary registration certificates issued between March 9 and April 8 will be increased from 10 to 60 days.
And from Thursday, the validity of foreign driving licenses will be maintained until August 29, in order to give their holders more time to apply for a license in Quebec.
While she has just shortened her mission in Europe to return to deal with the current turmoil at the SAAQ, Geneviève Guilbault asked that these measures be put in place to make life easier for those who could “have difficulty to obtain the services necessary to regularize their situation”.
“Only the targeted citizens will benefit from these exceptional measures,” she said in a press release.
Last Friday, Prime Minister François Legault stressed that he was “not at all satisfied with what is happening at the SAAQ”.
Two days later, the Crown corporation made the decision to reassign 150 employees to welcoming customers and helping with online registration. Hours of operation in branches with higher traffic have also been extended, and digital kiosks have been added in certain locations.
The government hopes that these measures will reduce traffic in the offices of the company, which have been overflowing for nearly three weeks.