Shawinigan-Sud is a predominantly French-speaking settlement in the Mauricie area in

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, on the Saint-Maurice River. In 1996, its population was 11,804.

History

Shawinigan-Sud was incorporated as a village in 1912 and was called Almaville until 1948. It developed primarily as a residential hub for Shawinigan. Its status was upgraded from village to town in 1961. Prior to the

municipal reorganization in Quebec A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the g ...

in 2002, Shawinigan-Sud was a separate municipality in the

Le Centre-de-la-Mauricie Regional County Municipality Le Centre-de-la-Mauricie was a former regional county municipality and census division in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. Prior to its dissolution, it consisted of: ;''Villes'' * Grand-Mère * Shawinigan * Shawinigan-Sud ;Municipali ...

. In January 2002, it was merged into the new City of Shawinigan. In

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...

language, the older and lower section of Shawinigan-Sud, closer to Saint-Maurice River, is called ''Almaville en bas''. The rest of the community, which is built on higher ground, is known as ''Almaville en haut''.

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player

Martin Gélinas Martin Gélinas (; born June 5, 1970) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played 1,273 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flam ...

grew up in Shawinigan-Sud.

Religion

Even though many of them are not church-goers, most residents of Shawinigan-Sud are

Catholic 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 ...

. Four Catholic parishes exist on Shawinigan-Sud's territory. Those parishes are: The current church building of Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation parish was completed in 1924. From 1942 to 1955, the structure was decorated with the artwork of painter Ozias Leduc and his assistant Gabrielle Messier. Members of the

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

community attend church at ''Église Évangélique Baptiste De Shawinigan-Sud'', located at 2500, route Lamothe. A Society of St. Pius X retreat house can be found at 905, Rang St-Mathieu Est. It has been active since 1951.

Education

There are four public schools. All are under the supervision of the ''Commission scolaire de l'Énergie'' school board. The École secondaire Val-Mauricie school has also had links with CISV International as it was used for a 4-week camp in the summer of 2004 which had children from Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, Lebanon, Japan, Usa & Canada.

Mayors of Shawinigan-Sud

From 1912 until 2002, Shawinigan-Sud had its own mayor. The mayors of Shawinigan-Sud were:Fabien LaRochelle, Shawinigan depuis 75 ans, 1976

Footnotes

Neighbourhoods in Shawinigan Former municipalities in Quebec Former towns in Canada Populated places disestablished in 2002 {{Quebec-geo-stub