Pierre Karl Pladeau to pick up tab for finding head of sovereignty institute

Parti Qubcois Leader Pierre Karl Pladeau will personallypay the contract of a headhunter tasked with recruiting a director fora new institute on Quebec sovereignty.

"I am at the origin of this idea to create the institute and I willdefray the costs,"he told a news conference Thursday in Quebec City.

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Pladeau said thetimetable for the creation of the institute, whichwill produce studies on the advantages of Quebec independence, has notbeen finalized.

"A headhunter has been mandated to find the management (of theinstitute),'' he said.

Opposition parties concerned

Pladeau insists the institute will be independent from the PQ, butmembers of the legislature from other parties said the situationraises questions about possible links between the two.

Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier said it was likely the province's chief electoral officer would find there was a conflict of interestbetween Pladeau and the institute.

"Let the (electoral officer) check the entire file, but for themoment the evidence we have is that the leader of the PQ says he wantsan institute and the leader of the PQ is determining the selectioncriteria,'' he said.

"It will be difficult not to see a convergence.''

Last month, Pladeau sent a cease-and-desist letter to FranoisLegault, leader of theCoalition Avenir Qubec, who suggestedPladeau might run afoul of Quebec's election laws if he personallyhelped finance the institute. The PQ leader threatened to do the sameto the Liberals for similar criticisms.

On Thursday, Legault said Pladeau must clarify whether the money is aloan or financing.

He questioned whether the PQ leader could finance more than $100 theannual limit in Quebec for individual donations to politicalparties in an organization that would be promoting sovereignty,which is Article 1 of the party's program.

Pladeau'soffice would not divulge the value of the contract for theheadhunter.

Same as the federal idea?

The PQ has previously responded to the criticism by pointing out thatthe Federal Idea, a Quebec-based think-tank on federalism, has linkswith the Liberal party.

Premier Philippe Couillard did not comment specifically on Pladeau'sfinancial involvement but said the institute would fail in itsmission.

"Each time the PQ has tried to prove that, financially andeconomically, separation would be beneficial, they always fail,''Couillard said.

"They will fail again because it just doesn't work.''

He said he wants to see the studies produced by the institute because "every time we have a new study from the PQ, we have a field day.''