Facer, Ontario

Facer is a community in the city of St. Catharines,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is located in the North East part of the city, bounded by the

Queen Elizabeth Way The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels around the western ...

and Welland Avenue to the South, Grantham Avenue to the East, Carlton Street to the North and Niagara Street to the West, with Facer Street being the main access road through the community. Facer is home to a vibrant

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

community dominated by Polish- and

Ukrainian-Canadian Ukrainian Canadians ( uk, Українські канадці, Україноканадці, translit=Ukrayins'ki kanadtsi, Ukrayinokanadtsi; french: Canadiens d'origine ukrainienne) are Canadian citizens of Ukrainian descent or Ukrainian-born pe ...

s, with a sizable minority of

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians ( it, italo-canadesi, french: italo-canadiens) comprise Canadians who have full or partial Italian heritage and Italians who migrated from Italy or reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census of Canada, 1,546,390 Canadians ...

s in the east end of the community near Grantham Avenue. It is one of the few areas outside of the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

where it is common to see store signs posted in a language other than English, with most stores in the area offering services to customers in their native language. Facer is home to the Queen Elizabeth Community Centre, St. Joseph's Bakery, the Canadian Polish Society, authentic Italian cafes,

credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...

s serving the Polish and Ukrainian communities, and a number of churches with

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

services in a number of different languages. File:Sts. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, St. Catharines (02).jpg, Sts Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, a landmark in the Facer community File:Facer, St. Catharines storefronts.jpg, The small delicatessens and independent businesses that line Facer St. Neighbourhoods in St. Catharines {{GoldenHorseshoe-geo-stub