Quebec's health and safety commission says several factors led to last winter's collapse of a snow-covered roof northwest of Montreal that killed three women. A 100-page report points specifically to a decorative awning installed at the base of the roof of the building adjoining the food-distribution warehouse in Morin Heights. The report says the parapet acted as a sort of wall that allowed snow to build up.

Quebec will avoid a recession this year and next, according to two major financial institutions, contradicting the reason given by Liberal Leader Jean Charest to justify a snap election. The Globe and Mail has learned that, in separate economic updates the Desjardins Group and the National Bank will release in the coming weeks, economists contend the province will weather the slowdown better than most other parts of the country.

Quebec's video-game industry has experienced ''spectacular growth'' and is now a major centre for game development. According to a new study by consulting firm Secor-Taktik for Alliance numerique, an association promoting the digital industry in Quebec, the province now has more than 4,000 video-game developers, up from only 500 at the beginning of the decade.

The Turcot interchange in southwest Montreal is a remnant from a more confident era, when concrete and cars equalled progress and Expo '67 epitomized the promise of Canada's then-premier metropolis.

Montreal-area town's ban of new wood stoves to cut pollution under criticism

As a Quebecoise, Lysiane Gagnon sees nothing wrong with the fact the Quebec flag contains a cross (The ADQ Bubble Bursts - Nov. 17).Presumably, she would not see anything wrong with the fact that the French version of ENTITY ERROR: Ô is not recognized Canada contains the line: Il sait porter la croix.

Almost midway into the Quebec election campaign, Jean Charest's Liberals have mustered enough support among a largely uninterested electorate to inch their way into majority government territory, but still need to solidify francophone voter support.

Nothing says winter comfort like stepping indoors and feeling the full-body hug of a blazing wood stove. But one Montreal-area town is pouring cold water on that wintry reprieve, banning the installation of new wood stoves and outlawing their use entirely within seven years.

Already rich with a history of policy-makers encouraging baby-makers, Quebec could become the first province to pay entirely for in-vitro fertilization treatment under a Liberal election promise made yesterday.

Desjardins Group, Quebec's biggest financial co-operative, is counting on its core network of local credit unions to help it weather the current economic turmoil.The group - the province's dominant provider of financial services - has been whipsawed by its exposure to capital markets turbulence.

Richard Martineau, a columnist for Le Journal de Montreal, was talking to his daughter about the new course on ''ethics and religious cultures'' that replaced the religion course in Quebec's curriculum. ''So what are you doing in this course these days?'' he asked her.

Mario Dumont, his Action Democratique du Quebec trailing badly in the polls, apologized yesterday for his party's failure to blossom into the top-notch opposition voters had been looking for.

The Liberals and the PQ are face to face once again

At well below 20 per cent in public opinion polls, the party's future may be on the line

Apparently the scales of justice tip in favour of fatties (Too Fat For Prison, Criminal Is Free To Go - Nov. 13). They may have to amend that old saw Do the crime / Serve the time to Eat that pap / Beat the rap.

Alberta joined Quebec and Ontario yesterday by announcing a ban on weed-and-feed products used by homeowners to beautify their lawns, in a bid to cut down on the amount of harmful chemicals being pumped into provincial waterways.

Mario Dumont still has the fire in his eyes and the strong conviction his Action Democratique du Quebec remains a force to be reckoned with. The province's voters, however, may be thinking otherwise.

Stephen Harper's speech to the ''Winds of Change'' conference in 1996 laid out a long-term strategy for a reunited Conservative Party. It could only win, he said, by doing what John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney did - uniting the populist conservatives of the West, the traditional Tories of Ontario and Atlantic Canada, and the francophone soft nationalists of Quebec. I call this the ''Three Sisters'' approach.

For Stephen Harper, the ethnic vote is easier to woo than Quebec

Party facing growing pressure to deal with its lacklustre results in province