Wal-Mart has released the first year results of its "Bought in Quebec" campaign. According to the company, they are now purchasing $1.75 billion worth of goods in Quebec, and have increased the number of Quebec businesses they deal with by 319, to a total of 1669. But as with many of Wal-Mart's campaigns to increase its public image and counter its critics, there is more here than meets the eye.

Both Montreal's La Presse and Journal de Montreal reported that while Wal-Mart vaunts the new program, there are serious questions about what "buying Quebec" consists of. Wal-Mart Canada states 80 percent of their purchases are from Canadian suppliers, but makes no distinction between suppliers with products made domestically (whether in Canada or Quebec) and products that are either imported from or outsourced to other countries.

"We don't deal in semantics," explained Wal-Mart spokesperson Yanik Deschenes to the Journal de Montreal. "Bought in Quebec covers what we buy from Quebec suppliers, whether they are a warehouse or a factory. The cheques are written in their names. It could be a Montreal-based lightbulb supplier whose products are manufactured in China. It remains a purchase made in Quebec." Requests by both media outlets for the list of Quebec suppliers company deals with were denied because the lists are classified as internal documents.

This it not the first time Wal-Mart has been caught in a word game when it came to suppliers. Nearly 10 years ago, while brandishing Made in America banner, it was shown that between 80 and 85 percent of Wal-Mart's merchandise was being imported from overseas, mostly from China. At the time, Wal-Mart was only about 4 years old in Canada. And while the discovery made headlines here as well, it would seem the Wal-Mart hopes that Canadians - and Quebeckers - have a short memory.