The Québec government has an ambitious new plan to take control of the province’s digital sovereignty. But Québec’s track record for modernizing its tech has sent mixed signals to the industry and left taxpayers with a hefty bill.
Last Friday, Québec’s Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Gilles Bélanger, announced several projects worth more than $1.4 billion aimed at reducing the province’s dependence on US tech giants and supporting local companies. While the announcement was welcomed as a step in the right direction by the tech industry, recent cost mismanagement scandals and contracts to US firms have cast a shadow on the government’s new plans.
“The elephant in the room is the incoherence coming from this government.”
Jean-François Harvey, CCI
The new policy rests on two main legs: hosting data securely under Québec control, and maximizing the economic impact of state investments in technology. It calls for greater emphasis on data hosting on Québec soil through existing government cloud services (for sensitive data), more data centres in the province powered by hydroelectricity, and the development of free software and custom solutions to reduce dependence on US providers.
As for investing in local firms, Bélanger pledged to use procurement mechanisms to promote solutions aligned with Québec’s interests.
Questioning Québec’s US contracts
Though the policy hits on notes that the tech ecosystem has been calling for—from sovereign data control to more local procurement—some say the government’s actions clash with its ongoing large US contracts.
“We’re very pleased to see the minister taking leadership on such important questions,” Jean-François Harvey, director of Québec affairs at the tech lobby group Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), told BetaKit. However, he added, “the elephant in the room is the incoherence coming from this government.”
One example, in Harvey’s mind, is the Québec government’s contract with US software company Epic Systems for a redesign of its digital health record system. Since the contract was awarded in 2023, the project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
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Friday’s announcement also came days before the Gallant Commission released its report showing that the government had failed to control costs for SAAQclic, a digital transformation project at the province’s automobile board, and that government officials had lied to conceal the mismanagement. The SAAQclic fiasco is a “great example of what can happen in the absolute worst case scenario,” Harvey said.
The $1.4-billion price tag on the province’s newly announced policy is striking, according to Le Journal de Montréal. The publication noted that the government had just completed a digital transformation to transfer Quebecers’ data into clouds owned by companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, which already cost $372 million. It’s unclear if the government plans to backtrack any of these contracts and switch providers to local companies, or to continue paying American firms.
The new policy also comes after the rival Parti Québécois (PQ), which leads in provincial polls, urged Premier François Legault’s government to introduce legislation on digital sovereignty in November. The PQ called out the government for awarding a contract to US-based Salesforce for a daycare registration portal, when a Québec company previously hosted it.
The government put forth this new policy amid a leadership and popularity crisis.
Defining digital sovereignty
In early December, Québec adopted the principle of digital sovereignty through a ministerial order which urged the government to favour Québec or Canadian service providers. Québec companies such as Micrologic, which provides “sovereign” cloud computing, have praised the government’s direction.
“We welcome the initiative unveiled today and reiterate our interest in offering our expertise to the government to help reduce our dependence on American tech giants,” MicroLogic said in a French statement on LinkedIn, which BetaKit has translated into English.
Harvey said he’d like to see more detail from the Québec government on who can access this $1.4 billion—and whether eligible companies will include foreign firms with Canadian or Québec subsidiaries.
“We would not want the government to end it there,” Harvey said. “What we’ve been advocating for is greater access for all local companies, not just a few hand-picked by a few folks.”
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Digital sovereignty has become a buzzword adopted by the federal government seeking to reduce its reliance on US big tech firms, which dominate cloud computing in the private and public sectors. The feds have pledged to create a Canadian sovereign cloud and are implementing a Buy Canadian policy.
Though other provinces have made moves toward buying domestic tech, Québec’s digital sovereignty plan appears to be unique. Alberta rolled out its AI data centres strategy in December 2024, part of which is to build more sovereign computing infrastructure. Ontario also announced nearly a year ago that it would ban US companies from government contracts (though the policy did not apply to all American firms). BC, for its part, launched digital tools for First Nations to build data infrastructure and ensure its security.
Québec’s foray into digital sovereignty also mirrors European interest in ditching American tech. Last month, the French government announced it would replace government digital tools including Microsoft Teams and Zoom with its own domestically developed videoconferencing platform, Visio, by 2027.
Feature image courtesy Coalition Avenir Québec.