“The independence of Quebec is not theoretical,” maintains the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who now promises to table his “year one budget” next June. A white paper on sovereignty, renamed “blue book”, will follow.
At the opening of the congress of members of the sovereignist party on Saturday, the elected PQ member made a commitment to journalists to file during the coming term a series of documents which will be used to define the contours of a possible Quebec-country. “We have the possibility of specifying several of the choices that we will make,” he said.
First step: updating the finances of sovereign Quebec. This long-awaited document will finally appear twelve months later than planned. But this time, “it’s a commitment,” said Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
The exercise is inspired in particular by the budget for year one tabled in 2005 by François Legault, who at the time held the position of finance critic for the official opposition. This budget, which itself drew its methods from the analysis of public finances carried out for the Bélanger-Campeau commission on the political and constitutional future of Quebec, concluded that the Quebec state would generate surpluses of five billion dollars, five years after a winning referendum.
Several postponements
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wanted to submit his new budget for year one before National Day 2022. He was unsuccessful. Then, in an interview with The duty during the election campaign, he claimed he would table it before the first leaders’ debate. Rebelote: for lack of means, the publication of the document has been postponed once again.
Since then, the mystery hovered over the official publication time of the “St-Pierre Plamondon budget”.
The party will rely on a team of “five or six” people to produce the document, which will model “the methodology of François Legault”, indicated Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, his voice buried by the ringing of the telephone to the tunes of a detective film. of its deputy Pascal Bérubé. “It’s François Legault: “hey, my method!” “launched the PQ leader jokingly.
Four steps
The PQ timeline also provides for a revision of the immigrant integration model in the spring of 2024, as well as a “definition of citizenship in a Quebec country”. Gathered in ordinary congress, the members of the PQ will also vote on the tabling of a white paper, which “responds [a] to a host of questions,” such as currency, borders and other details on the defense of a sovereign Quebec, pointed out Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. This “blue book” must be made public in time for 2025.
At their last convention, in 2021, the delegates of the PQ had supported a proposal aimed at “presenting a clear definition of a sovereign Quebec”. The blue book, if approved by the members, will fish out ideas in the document “Scotland’s Future”, tabled in 2013 by the Scottish government of Alex Salmond.
Pauline Marois is the last PQ leader to have raised the idea of a white paper on sovereignty. In 2014, she made it an election promise. His defeat in the election had put a final nail in the coffin of this initiative.