Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is a city in southwestern

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, in the Regional County Municipality of Beauharnois-Salaberry. The population as of 2019 was 42,410. Situated on Grande-Île, an island in the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

, it is bordered at its western end by Lake Saint Francis, with the Saint Lawrence to the north and the

Beauharnois Canal The Beauharnois Canal is located in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The canal is part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Located in Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality within the cities of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Beauharnois, Saint-L ...

to its south. The Port of Valleyfield is on the canal. The historic downtown is a major touristic centre for the area. Due to the presence of Lake St. Francis (St. Lawrence River), St. Francis Bay in downtown, and of numerous rivers and canals all over the town, the city is nicknamed "The Venice of Quebec".

History

The actual city was founded in 1874, the first mayor was Moise Plante. The first settlers arrived in 1798. At that moment, the settlement was named Pointe-du-Lac (Lake Point). The colony was then renamed Saranac, then Sainte-Cécile. Salaberry-de-Valleyfield was officially named in 1874 after Colonel

Charles de Salaberry Lieutenant Colonel Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry, Order of the Bath, CB (November 19, 1778 – February 27, 1829) was a Canadian military officer and statesman of the seigneurial class who served in various campaigns for the British A ...

who served with the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

army during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. "Valleyfield" came from the Valleyfield Mills, a

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

south of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Valleyfield, founded in 1892. Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is also the seat of the

judicial district A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction. By region Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" (german: Gerichtsbezirk) refers ...

of Beauharnois since 1901.

Merger

In 2002, the city of 26,170 amalgamated with the following communities (2001 Canada census figures): * Saint-Timothée (8,299) * Grande-Île (4,559)

Politics

The city council is composed of the mayor and eight city councillors. The municipal elections are at each 4 years, each councillor stands for his/her district.

Climate

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield 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 ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

) with warm summers and long, cold, and snowy winters.

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 ...

, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield 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.

Attractions

The Musée de Société des Deux-Rives (MUSO), which covers the economic and cultural history of the region, is located in the city. The city houses one of the 10 minor basilicas in Quebec. Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Cecilia, built in 1934–1935, is one of the largest churches in the country. The city has been the site of the Valleyfield Regattas since 1938. The event takes place every year at the beginning of July over a three-day period in the heart of the city on Bay Saint-François. It is an international hydroplane competition, in which power boats achieve speeds of up to 225 km/h. Attracting over 130,000 visitors per year, it also includes other cultural activities.

Education

* 9 daycare facilities * 3 pre-kindergarten centres * 12 elementary schools (some with daycare services), of which one is English-language. * 1 high school * 1 adult education centre * 1 vocational training centre * 1

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; ), also written cégep, CÉGEP and cegep, is a publicly funded college providing technical, academic, vocational or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, i ...

: Collège de Valleyfield *1 French-language university centre

Gault Institute

The Gault Institute was created by

Andrew Frederick Gault Andrew Frederick Gault (14 April 1833 – 7 July 1903) was an Ulster-born Canadian merchant, industrialist, and philanthropist known as the Cotton King of Canada. Born in Strabane, Ireland, Gault was the youngest son of Leslie Gault, an Anglo-Iris ...

. He created this school during the time that the Gault Cotton Mills were up and running. To heat the school at one time he used underground pipes connecting from the school to the Cotton Mills since at the time there was no electricity.

Notable people

Lise Bacon Lise Bacon (born August 25, 1934) is a former Canadian politician who served as Deputy Premier of Quebec from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Quebec Liberal Party, she served as a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the riding of ...

: Quebec politician. *

Line Beauchamp Line Beauchamp (born February 24, 1963) is a Canadian politician. She served as the Liberal Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for the Sauvé riding, and for Bourassa-Sauvé at the Quebec National Assembly from November 30, 1998 to May 14, 20 ...

: Quebec politician. *

Jean-Luc Brassard Jean-Luc Brassard (born August 24, 1972) is a Canadian freestyle skier, winning the gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Brassard has been credited with popularizing the wearing of bright knee pads to show off absorption and leg position fo ...

: Olympic gold medalist in skiing. *

Pierre Cossette Pierre Maurice Joseph Cossette (December 15, 1923 – September 11, 2009) was a television executive producer and Broadway producer. Cossette produced the first television broadcast of the Grammy Awards in 1971. Cossette was inducted into Can ...

: television and Broadway producer. *

Mélodie Daoust Mélodie Daoust ( ; born January 7, 1992) is a Canadian ice hockey player. She has competed with the Canada women's national ice hockey team, Canadian national team in numerous international tournaments and won a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Ol ...

: Olympics gold medalist in ice hockey. *

Paul-Émile Léger Paul-Émile Léger (April 26, 1904 – November 13, 1991) was a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1967, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. Early life and ...

: Cardinal of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. *

Suzanne Fortier Suzanne Fortier (born November 11, 1949) is a Canadian crystallographer and the 17th Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. Early life and education Fortier was born in Saint-Timothée, Quebec, a town on Île-de-Salaberry in th ...

: Principal at McGill University. * Armand Frappier: physician and microbiologist. *

Karla Homolka Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the actual rapes and murde ...

: serial killer. *

Vladimir Katriuk Volodymyr Katriuk (1 October 1921 – 22 May 2015) was a Ukrainian-Canadian soldier and beekeeper, who was accused by the Simon Wiesenthal Center of having been an active participant in the Khatyn massacre during World War II. In the annual Nazi W ...

(1921-2015) alleged Nazi war criminal. * J.

Albert Leduc Joseph Albert Florimond "Battleship" Leduc (November 22, 1902 – July 31, 1990) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League from 1925 to 1935. with the New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and businessman. * Serge Marcil: politician and Minister of Employment in 1994. * Anne Minh-Thu Quach: MP for

Beauharnois—Salaberry Beauharnois—Salaberry is a former federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1949 to 2015. Geography In 2003, the riding was re-defined to consist of the regional county municip ...

. * Jean Ouimet: former leader of the

Green Party of Quebec The Green Party of Quebec (GPQ) (french: link=no, Parti vert du Québec; PVQ) is a Quebec political party whose platform is the promotion of green politics. It has not won any seats in the National Assembly of Quebec. Its platform is oriented ...

References

External links

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield official website
{{authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Quebec populated places on the Saint Lawrence River Port settlements in Quebec Incorporated places in Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality Incorporated places in Montérégie