Provincial government dubs Quebec City a 'national capital'

Provincial government dubs Quebec City a 'national capital'

QUEBEC (CP, 12.1.00) - Move over, Ottawa, there are now two "national capital regions" in Canada - according to Quebec's separatist government. In a cabinet decree, adopted without fanfare before the holidays, the Parti Quebecois officially changed the legal name of the Quebec City administrative region to the "region de la capitale nationale."

While the decree entails a minor administrative change, it carries a much larger symbolic value. It also risks igniting yet another dispute between federal and provincial governments.

In August, the Quebec government threatened to cancel $700,000 worth of financing to a group set up to promote the Quebec City area, after the group agreed to a clause in its funding deal with Ottawa not to refer to Quebec City as the "national capital."

There is one national capital in Canada and it is in Ottawa, federal minister Martin Cauchon declared at the time.

A deal under which the group agrees to use the term "national capital of Quebec" was reached in November.

The Parti Quebecois government has tried to project the image of a sovereign country and using the term "capitale nationale" has fit into that strategy. Government ministers routinely use the term in their speeches, and it is trumpeted on billboards along highway approaches to the city.

The decree enacting the change was adopted by cabinet Dec. 15, the same day the Quebec government tabled Bill 99 - its legislative response to Ottawa's Clarity Act - and two days after Premier Lucien Bouchard's cabinet adopted its strategy to retaliate against Prime Minister Jean Chretien's government.

One Liberal member of the Quebec legislature - which is known in the province as the national assembly - said he has no problem with the change as long as it remains clear Quebec City is the national capital of a province, not of a country.

But Michel Despres acknowledged that sovereignists use the term to their own advantage.

Quebec City Mayor Jean Paul L'Allier said he doesn't see a separatist agenda behind the change. For him, its value is symbolic but only as a reminder that the city is home to the Quebec government and is where government business should be taking place.

L'Allier, who attracted national headlines when he had the Canadian flag removed from outside city hall and again when he had it returned, said the federal government should not have a problem with the change.

"We should carry out the Canadian debate on other things than that."