Archival documents dating back to the beginnings of the Parti Québécois (PQ) in the National Assembly in 1970 had to be evacuated from the Parliament Building this winter, for lack of means. The PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, on the other hand, assures that “everything has been saved”.
Set up upon the arrival of the first deputies of the sovereignist formation, the documentation center of the parliamentary wing of the PQ housed books, documents and audio files, relates the elected representative of Matane-Matapédia. However, here it is: for lack of space and money, the room located in the basement of the Parliament building had to be emptied. “We have fewer premises than we had. […] We no longer have an archiving service,” admitted Mr. Bérubé in a telephone interview with The duty.
Reduced to three members since last October, the PQ caucus has much smaller financial reserves than before. In the National Assembly, its net budget amounts to $570,000, or $200,000 less than requested by the party after the elections last October. In November, the leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, had encouraged his supporters to show generosity in order to ensure the proper functioning of the parliamentary wing of the party.
Despite these mobilization efforts, the lack of funds was felt in the archives department this winter. “It’s all gone,” explains Pascal Bérubé.
Gone, yes, but not gone for all that. The elected PQ claims to have kept some of the books that were there. Most of the archives then headed for Montreal, where the Parti Québécois office will ensure its preservation.
Political heritage
“It’s boring, but you have to make choices in these situations,” says former PQ MP Dave Turcotte, creator of the Virtual Museum of Political History of Quebec. He said he was still worried about the removal of these archives outside the National Assembly. “If someone, the Parti Québécois team needs them, it’s more difficult to get them. »
The one who represented the riding of Saint-Jean from 2008 to 2018 remembers having used the archives several times. “The PQ was one of the only parties to have a documentation center,” he observes.
The Liberal Party of Quebec keeps its archives in parliament. It is the only parliamentary group to do so at present, but “considering technological developments”, it has reduced its human and financial resources in recent years, it is said.
Mr. Turcotte says he fears a gradual disappearance of Quebec’s political documentary heritage. “The issue is more global. What do we do with archives in Quebec in general? The Parti Québécois has the same reality as many other institutions, as the other political parties. It’s the political history of Quebec, but it’s also the history of Quebec,” he says.
Asked about its intentions to keep or not the documents of the PQ under its wing, the National Assembly had not answered our questions at the time these lines were written.