La Sarre is a town in northwestern
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada, and is the most populous town and seat of the
Abitibi-Ouest Regional County Municipality.
It is located at the intersection of Routes 111 and 393, on the La Sarre River, a tributary of Lake Abitibi
Lake Abitibi (french: Lac Abitibi, oj, Aabitibiiwi-zaaga’igan) is a shallow lake in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec, Canada. The lake, which lies within the vast Clay Belt, is separated in two distinct portions by a short narrows, ma ...
.
In addition to La Sarre itself, the town's territory also includes the community of Bienvenu, located along Route 111 west of the La Sarre River.
History
Before colonization, the area was home to the indigenous Algonquin
Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to:
Languages and peoples
*Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia
**Algonquin la ...
who called the place ''Wabakin'', from ''wàba'' and ''akin'' meaning "there is a mountain of hardwood", and called the La Sarre River ''Adikameg Sibi'', which was also identified as ''Amikitik''.
The first white settlers, six in number, settled as squatters on the land in the late 19th century and were discovered during the survey of the township in 1908. Real colonization began at the time when the National Transcontinental Railway
The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway.
The Grand Trunk partnership
The completion of construction of Canada's ...
running through the Abitibi region was completed. The first permanent pioneer family arrived in 1912, followed by more settlers and development drawn to the area for its mining, forestry, and agricultural potential, and resulted in the formation of the settlement. In 1915, the post office opened, and a year later, the La Sarre Township was proclaimed, named after the La Sarre Regiment that was recognized for its part in the Battle of Carillon
The Battle of Carillon, also known as the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga, Chartrand (2000), p. 57 was fought on July 8, 1758, during the French and Indian War (which was part of the global Seven Years' War). It was fought near Fort Carillon (now ...
and the capture of Fort Oswego. In 1917, the Township Municipality of La Sarre was established, the same year as the Parish of Saint-André-de-la-Sarre. The Hudson's Bay Company opened a post in 1932, and only operated until 1941.
In 1937, the village separated from the township and was incorporated as the Village Municipality of La Sarre. It gained town (''ville'') status on 17 August 1949. In April 1980, the town and township municipality merged to form the current municipality.[
]
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...
, La Sarre had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Economy
The main local resource is the forest, which covers over and provides lumber to the town's main employers Norbord and Tembec
Tembec Industries Inc., known as Tembec, was a paper company in Canada, founded by Frank Dottori. In 2011, Tembec had approximately 3000 employees,[La Sarre Airport
La Sarre Airport is located northeast of La Sarre, Quebec, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean ...]
.
Municipal council
* Mayor: Yves Dubé
* Councillors: Sébastien Bélisle, Louis Côté, Steve Fontaine, Réjean Fournier, Richard Mailloux, Renée Thiboutot
List of mayors
Former mayors of La Sarre were:
* Adélard Cousineau 1917
* Félix Brousseau 1919
* Léonidas Boisvert 1920
* Hormidas Gauthier 1921–23
* Jules Lavigne 1923–31
* Edmond Mercier 1931–33
* Oscar Létourneau 1933–36
* Adrien Mercier 1936–39
* Gustave Rheault 1939–41
* Paul Bélanger 1941–44
* G. Eugène Lambert 1944–47
* Arthur Fortin 1947
* Fernand Doyon 1947–48
* Gérard Mercier 1948
* François-Xavier Martel 1948–51
* Gérard Mercier 1951–53
* Adélard Pelletier 1953–55
* Clément Déry 1955–63
* Hector Gagné 1963–68
* Roger Cousineau 1968–69
* Yves Baltazard 1969–72
* Raymond Thibault 1972–77
* Paul-Aurèle St-Pierre 1977–92
* Guy Carignan 1992–93
* Guillaume Marquis 1993–96
* J-Horace Lessard 1996–2003
* Normand Houde 2003–
Climate
La Sarre has a borderline 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 ...
(Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Dfb''), close to a subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
(''Dfc''). Winters are very cold and snowy, with an annual snowfall of , although thaws due to inflows of warm air from the southeast can raise temperatures above freezing and on 6 February 1988 temperatures rose to a remarkable . The hotter half of the year is pleasantly warm, though it can rain frequently.
See also
* List of cities in Quebec
This is the list of municipalities that have the Quebec municipality type of city (''ville'', code=V), an administrative division defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy.
Note that although the terms "city" and ...
References
External links
Ville de La Sarre (French only)
Vidéo : La Sarre en 1976
Vidéo : La Sarre en 1989
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Sarre
Cities and towns in Quebec
Incorporated places in Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Hudson's Bay Company trading posts
Populated places established in 1912
1912 establishments in Quebec