Low is a

township municipality The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy and compiled by the Inst ...

in the

La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau Regional County Municipality La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau ''(The Valley of the Gatineau)'' is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of western Quebec, Canada. The seat is in Gracefield, Quebec, Gracefield. It was incorporated on January 1, 1983 and was named for ...

of western

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. It is situated along the

Gatineau River The Gatineau River (french: Rivière Gatineau, ) is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec. The river is long and drains ...

north of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, and it is located within Canada's

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

. Its 2021 population was 1,020.
Low
received its name from Charles Adamson Low, a lumber merchant who held timber rights in the Gatineau Valley. A section of Low called Tucker Lake was home of the Gatineau Clog, a country music festival founded by Wayne Rostad in 1980 until 1995. The mayor of Low is Carole Robert, who was elected in November 2017. The two most recent former mayors were Morris O'Connor and Michael Francis, who was mayor back in the mid-eighties, and was re-elected in 1997. Francis announced his retirement in the summer of 2009, and finished his term in November 2009.

Geography

Low is situated in a corner of mountainous terrain on the edge of the

Gatineau Hills The Gatineau Hills (french: Collines de la Gatineau) are a geological formation in Canada that makes up part of the southern tip of the Canadian Shield, and acts as the northern shoulder of the Ottawa Valley. They are also the foothills of th ...

, but conducive to agriculture. It is dotted with an abundance of lakes, most notably Sainte-Marie, Island, Doyle, Cameron, and Venosta Lakes.

History

Low represents a rare case where the township was formed after the municipality; the township dates back to 1859 whereas the municipality was founded in 1848 and the municipality township was officially established on 1 January 1857, and came into force on 1 January 1858. It was named after Charles Adamson Low, an important timber merchant of the region in the mid-19th century, a time when many Irish immigrants settled here. Its post office was established in 1854. In 1928 the village of Low built the Paugan hydroelectric dam. This caused the voluntary flooding of the village to the north, Lac Saint Marie, Quebec. Because of the dam, 90% of the village of Lac Saint Marie had to be relocated to higher ground.

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 ...

, Low 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. Population trend: * Population in 2021: 1,020 (2016 to 2021 population change: 3.9%) * Population in 2016: 982 (2011 to 2016 population change: 6.7%) * Population in 2011: 920 (2006 to 2011 population change: -3.8%) * Population in 2006: 956 (2001 to 2006 population change: 12.2%) * Population in 2001: 852 * Population in 1996: 807 * Population in 1991: 892 Languages: * English as first language: 52.3% * French as first language: 46.7% * Other as first language: 1.0%

Paugan Hydroelectric Station

The Paugan Station (''Centrale de Paugan''), built in 1928, is a

run-of-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

hydroelectric power station and dam on the Gatineau river, operated by

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by the ...

. It has a

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

of , and 8 turbines with a total capacity of 202 MW. Its reservoir is .

References

{{authority control Township municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Outaouais