Westlock County is a

municipal district A municipal district is an administrative entity comprising a clearly-defined territory and its population. It can refer to a city, a town, a village, a small grouping of them, or a rural area. Brazil In Brazil, municipal districts are, in genera ...

in central Alberta, Canada that is north of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. The county was formerly known as the Municipal District of Westlock No. 92, and was created in 1943 from the merger of five smaller municipal districts.

Geography

Physiography

The county lies on the boundary of two of Canada's largest

drainage basins A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

. The northern and western sectors of the county are drained by the

Pembina River Pembina River may refer to: *Pembina River (Alberta), a river in central Alberta, Canada *Pembina River (Manitoba – North Dakota) The Pembina River is a tributary of the Red River of the North, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

which flows north to

meet Meet may refer to: People with the name * Janek Meet (born 1974), Estonian footballer * Meet Mukhi (born 2005), Indian child actor Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Meet'' (TV series), an early Australian television series which aired on ABC du ...

the Athabasca River, which drains into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

via the Mackenzie River. The southern and eastern sections drain into the Sturgeon River which joins the

North Saskatchewan The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventua ...

and eventually empties via the Nelson River into

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. A 1986 federal map shows the area as being the north-western edge of the Eastern Alberta Plains. Specifically, the county includes parts of the Edmonton Plain (and its subdivision Westlock Plain), as well as the Tawatinaw Plain, and is bounded on the northwest by the

Athabasca Valley Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada, āthap-āsk-ā-w (pronounced ), meaning "grass or reeds here and there". Most places named Athabasca are found in Alberta, Canada. Athabasca may al ...

. The county also lies within the apen parkland: a transitional biome between the boreal forest of Canada to the north and the prairie to the south.

Communities and localities

The following urban municipalities are surrounded by Westlock County. ; Cities *none ;

Towns 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 ...

* Westlock ; Villages * Clyde ; Summer villages * Larkspur The following hamlets are located within Westlock County. ; Hamlets * Busby *

Dapp A decentralised application (DApp, dApp, Dapp, or dapp) is an application that can operate autonomously, typically through the use of smart contracts, that run on a decentralized computing, blockchain or other distributed ledger system. Like ...

* Fawcett * Jarvie * Nestow * Pibroch * Pickardville * Tawatinaw *

Vimy Vimy ( or ; ; Dutch: ''Wimi'') is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Located east of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers ...

The following localities are located within Westlock County. ;Localities *Analta *Anton Lake *Arvilla *Deeney * Eastburg *Eunice *Fawn Lake *French Creek *Halach *Halcreek * Halfway Lake *Jeffrey *Linaria *Pembina Heights *Regal Park *

Rossington Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill. Geography Historically part of the West R ...

*Shoal Creek *Sylvan Glen *Waugh

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Westlock County had a population of 7,186 living in 2,680 of its 3,134 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 7,220. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Westlock County had a population of 7,220 living in 2,670 of its 3,009 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 7,644. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

The municipal government consists of a

reeve Reeve may refer to: Titles *Reeve (Canada), an elected chief executive of some counties, townships, and equivalents *Reeve (England), an official elected annually by the serfs to supervise lands for a lord *High-reeve, a title taken by some Englis ...

and six other elected

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

who work with a permanent staff of 32.

Education

The county is within the

Pembina Hills Public Schools The Pembina Hills School Division, (formerly known as Pembina Hills Regional Division No. 7 and Pembina Hills Public Schools) is a school division headquartered in Barrhead, Alberta. The division, with 16 schools having a total of about 3,700 st ...

, which formed in 1995 as a merger of three school districts.

References

External links

* {{Alberta Regions North Saskatchewan 1943 establishments in Alberta Municipal districts in Alberta