PEQ: temporarily living apart from de facto spouse?

[ilneige]

My partner and I have lived together continuously for over a year and have documents to prove it, but we may be living apart temporarily at the time that we apply for CSQ via the student PEQ program. I know that for the federal PR application, common law partners can live apart temporarily as long as they established 1 year living together continuously, and "de facto spouse" is supposed to be the Quebec equivalent of common law partners. But the PEQ application doesn't say anything about this and almost makes it sound like we have to be living together continuously up to the date of the application. Does anyone know if it's ok for us to live apart temporarily?