Quebec Opposition Leader Pierre-Karl Peladeau questions the government over Anticosti during question period Thursday, February 11, 2016 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

QUEBEC - Parti Quebecois Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau will personally pay the contract of a headhunter tasked with recruiting a director for a new institute on Quebec sovereignty.

"I am at the origin of this idea to create the institute and I will defray the costs," he told a news conference Thursday.

Peladeau said the timetable for the creation of the institute, which will produce studies on the advantages of Quebec independence, has not been finalized.

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

Peladeau insists the institute will be independent from the PQ, but members of the legislature from other parties said the situation raises questions about possible links between the two.

Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier said it would be difficult for the province's chief electoral officer to not conclude there is a convergence of interest between Peladeau and the institute.

"Let the (electoral officer) check the entire file, but for the moment the evidence we have is that the leader of the PQ says he wants an institute and the leader of the PQ is determining the selection criteria," he said.

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

Last month, Peladeau sent a cease-and-desist letter to Francois Legault, leader of the Coalition for Quebec's Future, who suggested Peladeau might run afoul of Quebec's election laws if he personally helped finance the institute. The PQ leader threatened to do the same to the Liberals for similar criticisms.

On Thursday, Legault said Peladeau must clarify whether the money is a loan or financing.

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

Peladeau's office would not divulge the value of the contract for the headhunter.

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

Premier Philippe Couillard did not comment specifically on Peladeau's financial involvement but said the institute would fail in its mission.

"Each time the PQ has tried to prove that financially and economically 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."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016