QUEBEC -- The Quebec government has introduced a new initiative that encourages cabinet ministers to speak only French to their counterparts from other provinces and Ottawa.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Alexandre Cloutier says the change is only a guideline, not a restriction.

Cloutier says the French-only guideline refers to exchanges by Quebec cabinet and deputy ministers during ministerial meetings.

He told a news conference in Quebec City today the ministers are free to use English in letters and during informal meetings with their Canadian counterparts.

Cloutier adds that ministers may explain subjects in English with their anglophone counterparts when they see fit.

He says the initiative is part of the Parti Quebecois' plan to push its sovereigntist agenda and get more powers from Ottawa.

Quebec also announced the creation of a commission to study areas where it says the federal government has encroached on the province's jurisdiction.

The Marois government has appointed former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and ex-PQ cabinet minister Rita Dionne-Marsolais as the commission's co-presidents.

Its first order of business is to examine the Harper government's reform to employment insurance and recent changes to federal funding allocated for job training.