The Parti Quebecois is raising some eyebrows about a new ad campaign it has launched on the economic benefits of sovereignty.
The one-minute video on the PQ's website called ‘Sovereignty: It Pays,’ features Premier Pauline Marois saying if Quebecers want to be more wealthy, there's no better way than independence.
She asks why we are paying for two ministries of revenue, two finance departments, and two ministries of transport.
She also cites resources, saying if one day we produce oil in Quebec, why would we share those profits with Ottawa?
Quebec doesn't produce oil at the moment but the hope – which experts think is wildly optimistic – is that the Anticosti Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence could produce between $200 and $300 billion of oil.
“It really is very hypothetical and if it does happen it's very far in the future as well,” said Ian Irvine, an economics professor at Concordia University.
The premier’s message is it would be all Quebec's oil, despite the fact that Quebec currently receives significant cash from Alberta's oil sands.
“We receive about $8 billion per year in equalization payments and a lot of that wealth would not come to us were it not for the fact that there were very other profitable oil and resource development in other provinces.
Meantime, Marois met Quebec Employers Council Monday to provide a positive message of how healthy the Quebec economy is, saying there is plenty of promise for local companies like Bombardier and how much more her government is going to do.
That includes investing $9.5 billion per year over the next 10 years into hospitals, schools and roads.
But one topic she didn't go near was sovereignty, refusing to answer any questions about her latest attempt to drum up support for separation.
Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Quebec Employers Council said he wouldn't make any pronunciations on sovereignty.
“We think the best independence we can have is the independence of controlling our economy,” said Dorval.
