Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will not be able to present a position on the currency, the army, or even the borders of a sovereign Quebec by the end of the election campaign. The presentation of a “year one budget” before October 3 is also compromised.
Pressed with questions on Saturday after returning from forced sick leave, the leader of the Parti Québécois was unable to give details on the monetary policy of an independent Quebec. “It’s not in the announcements that we have to do. We are going to come back to certain terms of an independent Quebec, but as I said at the start of the campaign, we are campaigning on the essentials,” explained Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
During the 2014 election campaign, PQ Premier Pauline Marois spoke out on issues like these, saying that Quebec would keep the Canadian dollar, in addition to proposing open borders with Canada, as in the European Union. More recently, in 2020, the National Youth Committee of the Parti Québécois had proposed to introduce a “piastre”.
At its convention last December, the PQ of “PSPP” for its part had undertaken to “present a clear definition of sovereign Quebec in the form of a descriptive sheet specifying, among other things, the currency, the army, pension schemes, border guards and the political regime” at the start of a potential referendum campaign. The PQ leader is proposing a referendum in a first term.
” But of course, […] each specific aspect… It’s not the campaign we’re leading,” insisted Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon on Saturday. “We think we should decide for ourselves. And if we agree on this fundamental principle, well, then there are all sorts of steps that we will take together. »
No way, therefore, to obtain details on the sovereign Quebec that the PQ leader foresees. PSPP assures that it would ask experts to look into the matter the day after the possible election of a PQ government.
When will the “year one budget” be?
Moreover, the tabling of a “year one budget” by the end of the electoral period is less certain than ever. On Friday, St-Pierre Plamondon agreed that his training “essay[ait] to redo the adjustment of the calculations” because “the data have changed substantially” with inflation.
In an editorial interview with The dutyhe had nevertheless affirmed that this update of the finances of an independent Quebec – which he initially wished to present before the National Day – would arrive before the first leaders’ debate.
“Inflation is such that if we table a calculation based on a year and a half ago, we will be, perhaps, ten billion [de dollars] next to reality,” explained Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. “We are working as quickly as possible on this adjustment. »
The first “year one budget” was tabled in 2005 by a certain… François Legault, who felt that Quebec’s financial backbone would resist a declaration of independence and separation from Canada.