The official opposition has difficulty understanding how François Legault can keep Éric Caire in charge of the Ministry of Cyber Security when the best no longer want to work for him. Criticized, the minister defends the skills of his senior officials.
• Also read: The bleeding continues at Cybersecurity: two more departures from Éric Caire’s ministry
• Also read: 5 days to remove an acute accent: the madhouse in Éric Caire’s country
Over the past few months, there has been bloodletting in the upper echelons of the new Ministry of Cyber Security and Digitization, our Parliamentary Office has learned.
“It is very worrying, very concerning and alarming,” said liberal Monsef Derraji.
Several executive resignations have been motivated by ministerial orientations that deviate from cybersecurity best practices.
There is a lot of frustration, we are told. Cybersecurity expertise in senior management has been completely skimmed off in favor of government mandarins.
“Public servants do not want to change their work culture,” says a source familiar with the matter. The opposition criticizes the leadership of Éric Caire.
“I don’t know what Legault is doing … once again to keep Mr. Éric Caire in his position. There is no one who wants to work with Éric Caire, not even in his ministry. The question arises, do we have the right minister ?Do we have the means? Because at the end of the line, it’s once again about security issues, cyber security issues, then a labor issue, also a competence issue. And we no longer know what Minister Éric Caire’s role is, adviser or minister,” said Mr .Derraji.
Solidarity Haroun Bouazzi is also worried.
“A leader needs two things: a vision and a good following. At the moment, he is not even able to keep the few followers he has. It is very worrying for the rest of the things,” he analyzed.
Cairo defends its leadership
But as he continues to lose his best elements at the helm of his ministry on cyber security, Éric Caire argues that the best leaders are state mandarins.
“Is Dominique Savoie a health specialist?” replied Minister Caire to justify the appointment of his Deputy Minister Pierre E Rodrigue. “Our health minister is not a health expert and yet he is an excellent health minister.”
The leadership of Deputy Secretary Pierre E. Rodrigues and his cybersecurity assistant, Lise Girard, are in doubt.
They are two career civil servants who have no experience in cyber security, there are internal complaints.
“The deputy minister’s job is not to be a cyber security specialist. I have 1200 people working with information resources. We have cyber security specialists. What is expected of a deputy minister is that he is a good leader and Pierre Rodrigue is an excellent manager,” he pleaded, assuring that despite the criticism, there was a real change in the IT culture and philosophy of Quebec’s government.
