Heron Bay (French ''Baie-des-Hérons'') is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. It was formed through the

2023 New Brunswick local governance reform Local governance reform in the Canadian province of New Brunswick in was implemented on January 1, 2023. This resulted in a significant reorganization of the municipal entities in the province, including a reduction in the number of entities fro ...

History

Heron Bay was incorporated on January 1, 2023 via the amalgamation of the former town of Dalhousie and the former village of Charlo as well as the concurrent annexation of adjacent unincorporated areas. The name of the municipality came from a submission by Arron Pelletier. "Heron" refers both to Heron Island, which is within the municipality, and

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

s, which frequent the area, while "Bay" refers to

Chaleur Bay frame, Satellite image of Chaleur Bay (NASA). Chaleur Bay is the large bay in the centre of the image; the Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is seen to the east.">Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.html" ;"title="Gaspé Peninsula ...

, which is adjacent to the municipality.

Geography

Heron Bay is the most northern point in New Brunswick, and thus is in the

Maritime provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. It is situated in the

Restigouche River The Restigouche River (french: Rivière Ristigouche) is a river that flows across the northwestern part of the province of New Brunswick and the southeastern part of Quebec. The river flows in a northeasterly direction from its source in the App ...

valley at the tongue of the river where it discharges into Chaleur Bay. The valley lies in a hilly region, part of the Appalachian mountain range, although the Heron Bay town site is situated on a hill side several decameters above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

with some development to its south on a low ridge of approximately 260 metres elevation. The town is surrounded by salt and fresh water bodies, which are home to many species of wildlife, unique birds, and fish. The area is rich in natural resources. Heron Bay faces

Miguasha, Quebec Miguasha Provincial Park (French: ''Parc national de Miguasha'') is a protected area near Carleton-sur-Mer on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec in Canada. Created in 1985 by the Government of Quebec, Miguasha was designated a World Heritage Site in ...

on the

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick o ...

to the north. The city of Campbellton lies upriver to the west and the city of Bathurst is approximately southeast along the shore of Chaleur Bay. There are no major centres south of Heron Bay as this is the undeveloped and heavily forested geographic centre of the province.

Economy

Until 31 January 2008, the economy was dominated by the forestry industry, namely a large

pulp and paper The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. Manufacturing process The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web an ...

mill spanning the waterfront along the Restigouche River. This mill was built to produce

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...

by the New Brunswick International Paper Co. in 1928 (a subsidiary of

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

). Dalhousie was prosperous for many decades due to the mill and the employment opportunities it created. The mill underwent ownership changes in 1980, when

Oji Paper is a Japanese manufacturer of paper products. In 2012 the company was the third largest company in the global forest, paper and packaging industry. The company's stock is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the stock is constituent of the Ni ...

Co. Ltd. and

Mitsui is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...

& Co. of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

purchased 33 per cent of the mill. They grouped it under the name Canadian International Paper. In 1991, it was purchased by

Canadian Pacific Limited Canadian Pacific Limited was created in 1971 to own properties formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a transportation and mining giant in Canada. In October 2001, CPR completed the corporate spin-offs of each of the remaining business ...

, who grouped it under their

Canadian Pacific Forest Products Canadian Pacific Limited was created in 1971 to own properties formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a transportation and mining giant in Canada. In October 2001, CPR completed the corporate spin-offs of each of the remaining business ...

subsidiary. The mill changed hands again in 1994, when CPFP changed to become Avenor Inc. In 1998

Bowater Bowater Inc. was a paper and pulp business headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. It merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007, and the combined company went on to become Resolute Forest Products. History The North American assets of Bow ...

purchased the Dalhousie newsprint mill, and it was renamed "Bowater Maritimes Inc.". The 2007 merger of Bowater and

Abitibi Consolidated Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in 2 ...

resulted in the decision by the newly merged company to announce the closure of the Dalhousie newsprint mill on 29 November 2007 due to apparent market conditions. The mill, which had produced 640 tonnes of newsprint per day for shipment by rail, truck and ship to domestic and international markets, was officially closed on 31 January 2008. Consequently, the economy of the town of Dalhousie is facing uncertainty during the post-industrial adjustment. Due to the closure of this mill, hundreds were left without work in the local economy and some were forced to move. The mill has since been completely demolished. Following the closure of the pulp and paper mill in 2008, Pioneer Chemicals closed a processing plant on the western edge of the town. As a result of the closures of these industries, the

New Brunswick East Coast Railway The New Brunswick East Coast Railway was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It included of track of which were mainline between Campbellton and Pacific Junction near Moncton. Important spurs connected Dalh ...

and its subsequent owner

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

announced that it was declaring the railway spur into the town surplus. However, a deal was struck between CN and the Port of Dalhousie for this section of line to remain open under a leasing agreement in November 2011. The only industry that remained was the generating station, but it was decommissioned in 2012 and demolished in 2015 after one more failed attempt. While there are several smaller employers, the largest employer in the town currently is the Dalhousie Nursing Home.

Transportation

The town benefits from its geography by having a deep sea port, which is ice-free year round. The administration of the port was privatised in 2006, as the result of the federal government's divestiture programme. The port is located on the south shore of the

Bay of Chaleur frame, Satellite image of Chaleur Bay (NASA). Chaleur Bay is the large bay in the centre of the image; the Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is seen to the east.">Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.html" ;"title="Gaspé Peninsula ...

at the mouth of the

, and includes 98 acres (39.66 hectares) of land, 494 acres (200 hectares) of "waterlot," and two cargo facilities—East Bay Marine Terminal, whose chief cargo is paper, and the West Wharf, which imports petroleum and coal and exports ore concentrates. Berth depths range from 9.7 to 10.3 meters (31.8 to 33.8 feet). The port is located adjacent to the now-demolished pulp and paper mill. The east wharf can handle 340m vessels with maximum draught at low tide of 9.1m, and has indoor storage facilities of 1ha, while the west wharf handles vessels of up to 355m with draught 10.3m. It is also served by the

and is located on the Highway 11 arterial highway.

Via Rail Canada Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

provides passenger train service three days per week with stops at Charlo immediately east of the town and in Campbellton to the west. The

Charlo Airport Charlo Airport is located south-southeast of Charlo, New Brunswick, Canada. The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). CBSA officers at this airport can handle ge ...

is located several kilometres east of the town for private and charter service with scheduled air service available at the Bathurst Airport.

Education

Heron Bay has two elementary schools (

Académie Notre-Dame An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

and L.E. Reinsborough),and two high schools (

Dalhousie Regional High School Dalhousie Regional High School is located in Dalhousie, New Brunswick. Dalhousie Regional High School is in the Anglophone North School District. See also * List of schools in New Brunswick * Anglophone North School District References

Sc ...

and École Aux quatre vents).

Climate

Heron Bay has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

. In spite of its marine position, this climate regime is typical of New Brunswick and is manifested by vast differences in temperature between the warm summers and the cold snowy winters.

Infrastructure

The

, the only airport in the region, offered scheduled air service between 1963-2001. In October 2012,

Provincial Airlines Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

began trial flights at the

. In January 2013, after deeming that there was sufficient demand, they made the trial flights permanent. They currently provide direct flights between Heron Bay, New Brunswick and Wabush, Newfoundland and

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

.https://www.provincialairlines.ca/fly-pal/where-we-fly/

Notable people

Guy Arseneault Guy H. Arseneault (born 11 May 1952 in Dalhousie, New Brunswick) was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1997. He was a teacher by career. Politics Arseneault won election for the Liberal party in the 1988 File:1988 Even ...

, teacher and politician *

Joseph Cunard Barberie Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, politician *

Joel Bernard Joel Bernard (born December 8, 1963) is a Canadian conservative politician. Political career Provincial He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, representing Nepisiguit, in the general election of 1999 and became deputy sp ...

, politician *

Gordie Dwyer Gordon Rick Dwyer (born January 25, 1978) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played five seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens. He last served as ...

, hockey player and coach * Kate Simpson Hayes, writer * Charles H. LaBillois, politician and merchant * Allan Maher, businessman and politician * Marie-Jo Pelletier, alternate captain for the

Buffalo Beauts The Buffalo Beauts are a professional ice hockey team based in Amherst, New York, United States. The team was established in 2015 as one of the four founding franchises of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), originally named the National Women' ...

Linda Silas Linda Silas is a Canadian nurse and trade unionist. She is the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) since 2003. Early life and education Linda Silas grew up in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, a small community on the Restigouc ...

, nurse and trade unionist

References

{{Subdivisions of New Brunswick, towns=yes, villages=yes, rural communities=yes, regional municipalities=yes, counties=yes, state=expanded 2023 establishments in New Brunswick 2023 New Brunswick local governance reform Populated places established in 2023 Towns in New Brunswick