Lac-au-Saumon is a municipality 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 ...
of
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 ...
, located in
La Matapédia Regional Council Municipality in the
Matapédia Valley
The Matapedia Valley (French: ''vallée de la Matapédia'') was formed by the Chic-Choc Mountains of eastern Québec. Its name is derived from the river that traverses the valley, as well as the lake that lies in its center. It is situated in ...
.
The municipality had a population of 1,488 as of the
Canada 2021 Census
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 ...
.
The village is located on the shores of the eponymous ''Lac au Saumon'' (French for "Salmon Lake") that is an enlargement of the
Matapédia River
The Matapedia River (french: Rivière Matapédia) is a river in the Matapedia Valley in the province of Quebec, Canada. It runs on from Matapedia Lake down to the village of Matapédia where it empties into the left bank of Restigouche River on ...
. It was known as a spawning ground for salmon, but major pollution from mills made this a thing of the past.
History
The area opened up to colonization in 1863, and the Mission of Saint-Edmond-du-Lac-au-Saumon was founded in 1876. But it was not until 1896 that real settlement began with the arrival of a group of
Acadians
The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the des ...
from the
Magdalen Islands
The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...
. The following year the Lac-au-Saumon post office opened.
[
On December 17, 1997, the Village Municipality of Lac-au-Saumon and the Municipality of Saint-Edmond were amalgamated to form the new Municipality of Lac-au-Saumon.][
]
Demographics
Canada Census data before 2001 (pre-merger):
Municipal council
* Mayor: Michel Chevarie
* Councillors: Gérald Ruel, Michel Lapierre, Karine Dostie, Patrick Bacon, Sylvain Harvey
Mayors of the Municipality of Lac-au-Saumon
(following the merger with Saint-Edmond)
*Michel Chevarie 2009-
*Jean-Claude Dumoulin 2005-2009
*Aurélien Beaulieu 1998-2005
*Jean-Claude Dumoulin 1997-1998
Mayors of the former Village Municipality of Lac-au-Saumon
*Joseph Gaudreau 1905-1909
*Hector Fournier 1909-1910
*Zénon Routhier 1910-1912
*J.-A. Burton 1912-1913
*Alphonse Landry 1913-1915
*M.-E. Castonguay 1915-1917
*P.-A. St-Laurent 1917-1921
*Ernest Deschênes 1921-1928
*Ferdinand Paradis 1928-1933
*Léo Marmen 1933-1937
*Ludger Leblanc 1937-1945
*Charles Lavoie 1945-1947
*Florian Drouin 1947-1949
*Ferdinand Dupont 1949-1960
*Adrien Ferlatte 1960-1963
*Joseph-Marie St-Amand 1963-1965
*Alphonse Richard 1965-1967
*Ghislain Roy 1967-1973
*Guy Garon 1973-1976
*Joseph O. Bérubé 1976-1978
*Alphonse Richard 1978-1982
*Jean-Guy Gagnon 1982-1983
*Roland Poitras 1983-1987
*Daniel Lamarre 1987-1993
*Jean-Claude Dumoulin 1993-1997
See also
* List of municipalities in Quebec
__FORCETOC__
Quebec is the second-most populous province in Canada with 8,501,833 residents as of 2021 and is the largest in land area at . For statistical purposes, the province is divided into 1,282 census subdivisions, which are m ...
References
{{authority control
Municipalities in Quebec
Incorporated places in Bas-Saint-Laurent
La Matapédia Regional County Municipality