QUEBEC CITY - The Quebec City Armoury, levelled by fire in 2008, will be rebuilt, vows Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made the announcement in a visit to the provincial capital Friday.

The undertaking is not a small one: all that was left of the Grande Allee Drill Hall after the April 2008 blaze was a single façade and two towers.

The new $100-million building, when completed in 2015, should be similar to previous structure, but it will also house federal offices, a multi-purpose hall and space for the famous Voltigeurs du Quebec, who long trained and met at the facility, which stood since 1888.

Friday's ceremony was attended by Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume but the provincial PQ government was conspicuously absent from the proceedings.

The PQ has complained that it was not consulted in the rebuilding of the building, which was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1991.

“It's just beside the National Assembly. It's normal that the governments work together,” said PQ MNA Agnes Maltais. “It's normal we only want to have a normal collaboration.”

Harper was asked by journalists about the PQ decision to remove the Canadian flag from the National Assembly but he sidestepped the issue and said that he prefers to prioritize economic issues.