Canadian Press

Sunday, December 01 – Online Edition, Posted at 7:34 PM EST

Quebec — A new sovereigntist group will receive tax-deductible donations to counter the "falsehood" of Canadian unity, Premier Bernard Landry said Sunday.

"There is no Canadian unity," Mr. Landry told reporters after wrapping up a two-day Parti Québécois convention. "The government of Canada promotes Canadian unity. "We'll promote a national cause that is clearer because Canadian unity is a falsehood to start with."

On Saturday, Mr. Landry announced the provincial government will offer tax breaks on contributions to a new pro-independence group, the Council for Sovereignty. Contributions will be treated like charitable donations eligible for partial government refunds, Mr. Landry said.

He noted that the 38-year-old Canadian Unity Council has long benefited from such privileges and that the federal government has spent "hundreds of millions" to promote federalism in Quebec.

The PQ government has refused to fund pro-independence ad campaigns with public money ever since Jacques Parizeau resigned as premier in 1995.

Facing mounting pressure from his party's hardline faction, Mr. Landry proposed the tax writeoff idea. He said such writeoffs are different from direct government funding because, instead of producing "propaganda," they encourage people to take part in an intellectual debate.

He challenged Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to recognize the sovereignty council as a registered charity eligible for federal tax writeoffs. If Mr. Chrétien refuses, Quebec will eliminate similar provincial privileges for the unity council.

The Canadian Unity Council is recognized as a registered charity by the federal and provincial governments, which share a similar list of charities. In Quebec, a $500 personal charitable donation results in a $231 tax credit — with $121 reimbursed by Ottawa and $110 reimbursed by the provincial government.

Meanwhile, Mr. Landry also promised Sunday to talk more often about how a sovereign Quebec would be a better place.

He said he was inspired by a newspaper column that promoted the idea Sunday in Le Journal de Montreal. Long-time sovereigntist columnist Pierre Bourgault said the government could get more people excited about independence if it repeated the phrase, "If Quebec were sovereign..."

"Here's a good way of talking about sovereignty on all platforms and many times a day," Mr. Bourgault wrote.

"Once the phrase becomes anchored in people's minds, we could better explain what could be done differently and better in a sovereign Quebec."

Mr. Landry adopted the theme Sunday.

"'If Quebec were sovereign' is a method we'll start using more and more," said the Premier. For instance, if Quebec were sovereign, it would have already signed the Kyoto accord on curbing greenhouse gases, would have a more generous parental-leave program, and would have more lenient youth-justice laws, Mr. Landry told party members in a speech.

An independent Quebec could also avoid the recommendations of last week's federal Romanow report, he said.

The report by former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow prescribed $15-billion more in federal funding for health care, but said Ottawa should have more control over how health money is spent.

"The Romanow affair shows there is an emergency to settle between the Canadian and Quebec nations," Mr. Landry said. "In the rest of Canada, they are rather positive about the report — except the amount [of money prescribed]," he said.

Meanwhile, all parties in the Quebec legislature condemned the report last week.

Mr. Landry threatened serious consequences if Ottawa adopts all of Mr. Romanow's recommendations.

"Grave things are being prepared," he said without elaborating further. "Count on me."

Mr. Landry has already raised the spectre of a legal struggle between Ottawa and the provinces if the federal government attempts to take control of health care, which is a provincial responsibility under the Constitution.