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Sovereignty deadline evaporates

Quebec — It could be as many as five years before Quebeckers are ready to fight another referendum battle on sovereignty, says Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, the province's Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

The minister says sovereigntists agree that they are not ready for another referendum and that it will take some time to prepare Quebeckers to vote on their political future.

"I think that in five years, perhaps sooner, we will be able to consult people on sovereignty," Mr. Charbonneau said in an interview Thursday, reiterating that the government cannot force people into a sovereignty debate when they are not in favour of it.

"Public opinion is volatile," he said. "There could be events that may bring people to reconsider."

Mr. Charbonneau's comments cast doubt on hopes expressed by Premier Bernard Landry last summer that the Parti Québécois government would found a sovereign nation by 2005.

As hope for achieving sovereignty fades, so does the government's will to initiate a clear strategy and timetable to achieve its objective. The lack of any concrete sovereignty initiatives has become a major irritant with rank-and-file Parti Québécois who have been calling on the government to be more aggressive.

So far, the government has refused to bend to the will of the party members, exacerbating frustrations that may cost Mr. Landry heavily in the next election campaign, which is expected within a year.

Premier Landry has said he will not spend public funds to promote sovereignty. Thursday, the government released 3,800 pages of studies examining the issue without giving any indication as to how the studies will be used.

The Landry government has resorted to underlining the flaws of federalism rather than the benefits of sovereignty. It has focused its efforts on demonstrating that federalism is strangling Quebeckers financially and that the system is inadequate.

Mr. Charbonneau explained that Quebec must first put federalism to the test. For years now, the PQ government has been trying to recreate a political climate of confrontation with Ottawa.

The federal government has up until now successfully avoided falling into any political trap. In a war of attrition, Mr. Charbonneau predicted, voters will realize over time that the Canadian government will refuse to meet Quebec's demands for a more equitable share of federal tax revenue. Voters, he added, will also realize the extent to which the federal government is spending millions of dollars in propaganda to crush Quebec nationalism and to promote a a single national identity.

"There is a fundamental flaw in the Canadian system," Mr. Charbonneau argued. "The view from Ottawa is that there is only one real government in Canada and that is the federal government. They want to impose their vision of a country on Quebec, their own nationalism, their Canadian identity."

While Quebeckers may not be in the mood to talk about separation, Mr. Landry said that it will remain his duty to bring it up.

"The Quebec question has not been settled," he told a Montreal business luncheon. "Some people are tired of hearing about it, but you don't settle the fundamental problem by refusing to talk about it." Mr. Landry added if Quebeckers had voted for sovereignty in 1995 they would not be facing the financial difficulties they are facing today.

"If, in '95, we hadn't come 30,000 votes short of settling the question, we wouldn't be losing $50-million a week," he said.

With a report from Ingrid Peritz in Montreal