QUEBEC — The Parti Québécois will unveil today what the first budget of a theoretical, independent Quebec would look like.

The so-called Year One budget will be presented today by leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and will contain a projection of revenues and expenditures for the first year of an independent Quebec that he has promised for several months.

The party has gone through the budget exercise a few times in its history to define the financial framework of an eventual sovereign Quebec.

It’s the first time the sovereigntist party has produced such a document since 2005 when it was presented by then-PQ member François Legault, now the Quebec premier and leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec.

Legault, who quit the PQ in 2009 and founded the Coalition in 2011, painted a very favourable portrait of the finances of an independent Quebec then, but doesn’t believe that anymore and has repeatedly attacked the PQ in recent days.

The PQ currently has four legislature members in the 125-seat national assembly.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2023.

The Canadian Press