Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the

Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean (, ) is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region. It is also known as Sagamie in French, from the first part of "Saguenay" and th ...

region 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 ...

, Canada, on the

Saguenay River __NOTOC__ The Saguenay River () is a major river of Quebec, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. T ...

, about north of

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of

Tadoussac Tadoussac () is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu call the place ''Totouskak'' (plural for ''totouswk'' or ''totochak'') meaning "bosom", probably in reference to the t ...

, located at the confluence with the

St. 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, connecting ...

. It was formed in 2002 by merging the cities of

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi () is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and com ...

and

Jonquière Jonquière (; ; 2021 population: 60,250) is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Saguenay River, near the borough of Chicoutimi. History Jonquière ...

and the town of

La Baie La Baie (French pronunciation: / la bɛ/, Quebec French pronunciation: / la be/) is one of three boroughs in the city of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It was created during Quebec's municipal reorganization in 2002. From 1976 to 2001, it was know ...

. Chicoutimi was founded by French colonists in 1676. The city of Saguenay constitutes a

territory equivalent to a regional county municipality An equivalent territory (french: territoire équivalent), formally known as territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (french: territoires équivalents à une MRC), is a territorial unit used by Statistics Canada and the Institut de la ...

(TE); its geographical code is 941. Together with the

regional county municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM (''french: municipalité régionale de comté, MRC'') is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities. In some older English translations they were called county r ...

of Le Fjord-du-Saguenay, it forms the

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

(CD) of

Le Saguenay-et-son-Fjord Le Saguenay-et-son-Fjord (Saguenay and its Fjord) is a census division (CD) of Quebec, with geographical code 94. It consists of the Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality and the territory equivalent to a regional county municipalit ...

(94). The mayor of Saguenay since 2021 is

Julie Dufour Julie may refer to: * Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day * ''Julie'' (1975 film), a Hindi film by K. S. Sethumadhava ...

. Prior to its use as the name of the city, the term "the Saguenay" or (less commonly) "Saguenay Valley" had already been used for the whole Saguenay River region (see

). Saguenay is 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 Chicoutimi. The city is divided into three boroughs:

(which includes the former city of Chicoutimi, as well as Laterrière and Tremblay township),

(which includes the former city of Jonquière, Lac-Kénogami, and Shipshaw) and

(which corresponds to the former city of La Baie).

Etymology

The name Saguenay is possibly derived from the

Innu The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period ( French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in the ...

word "Saki-nip", which means "where water flows out".

History

Saguenay was formed on February 18, 2002, by amalgamating the cities of

and Laterrière, along with the municipalities of Lac-Kénogami and Shipshaw and part of the township of Tremblay.http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/publications/referenc/pdf/modfev02.pdf

Chicoutimi

What was ultimately to become the centre of the borough of Chicoutimi was first settled in 1676 as a French

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

in the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

. At that time, the Saguenay and

rivers had been used for centuries by the

. The name ''Chicoutimi'' means 'the end of the deepwater' in the Montagnais. Chicoutimi trading post was in operation until 1782. The city of Chicoutimi was officially incorporated as a municipality in 1845 by Peter McLeod, a

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

timber contractor, who had built a sawmill there in 1842. It was designated in 1855 as the seat of Chicoutimi County and in 1878 as the seat of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicoutimi The Diocese of Chicoutimi ( la, Dioecesis Chicoutimiensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Quebec, centred on the borough of Chicoutimi in the city of Saguenay. It is part of the ecclesiastical province of Quebec. On 18 November 2017, Pope Fran ...

. With the arrival of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

in 1893, the local pulp and paper industries expanded, particularly in mechanical pulp production. The Chicoutimi Pulp Co. was founded in 1896 and backed by

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...

investors. By 1910 the Chicoutimi Pulp Mill became the biggest producer of mechanical pulp in Canada. The economic decline of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

led the city's economy to shift administration and commerce and commercial. The

Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

was founded in Chicoutimi in 1967, and the

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) is a branch of the Université du Québec network founded in 1969 and based in the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. UQAC has secondary study centres in La Malbaie, Saint-Félicien ...

was founded in 1969. The city played host to the Quebec Summer Games in 1972. In the municipal amalgamations of 1976, Chicoutimi annexed the neighbouring towns of Chicoutimi-Nord and Rivière-du-Moulin. In a later round of amalgamations in 2002, the cities of Chicoutimi,

, Lac-Kénogami, Laterrière, Shipshaw and part of Tremblay merged to form the new city of Saguenay. Chicoutimi became a borough of Saguenay. During the summer of 1996 a record rainfall in the region caused major flooding in the downtown, as well as outlying areas. The total cost of the disaster was recorded to be C$1.5 billion. It claimed seven lives and destroyed many bridges.

Jonquière

Jonquière was founded in 1847 by Marguerite Belley, who came from

La Malbaie La Malbaie is a municipality in the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality in the Province of Quebec, Canada, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Malbaie River. It was formerly known as Murray Bay. La Ma ...

to settle on the Rivière aux Sables. It was named after Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière, Marquis de la Jonquière, governor of New France from 1749 to 1752. Growth came from the construction of pulp and paper mills at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1925 and 1928, the world's largest aluminum plant was built along with the city Arvida (then a separate town). In 1942, to supply power to the plant, Alcan built a hydroelectric station at Shipshaw that was the largest in the world at that time. Jonquière, Arvida, and Kénogami were amalgamated into a single city, Jonquière, in 1975. Jonquière was the host city for the Quebec Games in the winter of 1976, and for the Canoe/Kayak World Championships in slalom and whitewater racing, in 1979. Much of Jonquière's development owed its strength to the Price family, who ran a pulp and paper factory in Kénogami. Today that factory is owned by Produits Forestiers Résolu. Arvida is the home of an

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

plant owned by Rio Tinto

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...

. Jonquière is probably best known in the United States as a result of the local

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

store which attempted to

unionize A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

and was closed down shortly thereafter. The official reason for this shutdown was "financial problems." When the city of Saguenay was constituted on February 18, 2002, by municipal amalgamation, the borough of Jonquière was created from the former city of Jonquière, the former municipality of Shipshaw, and the former municipality of Lac-Kénogami. The former city of Jonquière had a population of 54,842 in the Canada 2001 Census, the last census in which Jonquière was counted as a separate city. The Rivière aux Sables runs through the centre of Jonquière. Significant damage to the city's buildings was caused by the 1996 Saguenay flood.

Geography

Saguenay is located in a depression in the

Canadian shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...

called the

Saguenay Graben The Saguenay Graben is a rift valley or graben in the geological Grenville Province of southern Quebec, Canada. It is an elongated flat-bottomed basin long and wide, bounded by normal faults running parallel to its length. Formation of the Sa ...

, which has a somewhat more

temperate climate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

than the surrounding region. This has encouraged agriculture and

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of ci ...

to take place. The relatively small and concentrated Lac St-Jean area where the city is located can be described as an isolated "

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

" in the middle of the vast remote wilderness of Northern Quebec. No paved roads go north from the area into the wilderness; the last paved roads to the north end just a short distance from the city, and still within the Lac St-Jean area. There are no human settlements due north of Saguenay all the way to the

Canadian Arctic islands The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...

, except for a few isolated

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

and

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

villages. Few roads connect with the area from the south and east. However, the remote, paved Route 167/113 heads northwest to the interior town of

Chibougamau Chibougamau () is the largest town in Nord-du-Québec, central Quebec, Canada. Located on Lake Gilman it has a population of 7,504 people (2016 Canadian Census). Chibougamau is surrounded by, but not part of, the local municipality of Eeyou Istc ...

, providing access to Western Quebec and

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. No services are available for the 230 km (143 mi) to Chibougamau from the Lac St-Jean area. Two notable

natural disaster A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econ ...

s have occurred within the current municipal boundaries of Saguenay: the

Saint-Jean-Vianney Saint-Jean-Vianney was a village in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, which was abandoned after it was partially destroyed in a landslide on May 4, 1971. History Saint-Jean-Vianney was originally created as a parish municipality in ...

landslide of May 4, 1971, and the Saguenay flood of 1996. The

1988 Saguenay earthquake The 1988 Saguenay earthquake struck Quebec, Canada with a moment magnitude of 5.9 on November 25. It is one of the largest recorded earthquakes in eastern Canada and eastern North America during the 20th century. The earthquake was felt by million ...

, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on November 25, 1988, had its epicentre 35 km south of Chicoutimi and was felt within the city.

Climate

Saguenay 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 ...

(

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfb)'' with large variation between summer and winter. The city features two brief transition seasons (spring and autumn), while summers are warm and occasionally hot, and winters are long and very cold. Temperatures drop below on average 47 times per year and below seven times per year. The low winter temperatures characteristic of Saguenay are caused by a combination of factors, such as the cold waters of the

Labrador Current The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Sco ...

and

to the north and east of the city. The highest temperature ever recorded in Saguenay was on August 18, 1935. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on February 5, 1916.

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 ...

, Saguenay 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. At the

census metropolitan area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...

(CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Saguenay CMA had a population of 161,567 living in 74,809 of its 79,976 total private dwellings, a change of 0.0% from its 2016 population of 161,520. With a land area of 3,133.53 km² (1,209.86 sq mi), it had a population density of 51.6/km² (19.93/sq mi) in 2021. The

ville ''Ville'' or "town", but its meaning in the Middle Ages was "farm" (from Gallo-Romance VILLA < Latin ''

villa rustica

'') and ...

of Saguenay had a 2021 population of 144,723. The median age is 46.0, as opposed to 41.6 for all of Canada. French was the

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

of 97.4% of residents in 2021. The next most common mother tongues were

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

at 0.8%, followed by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

at 0.4%. 0.4% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.2% who reported both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue. As of 2021,

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

comprised 5.4% of the population and visible minorities contributed 2.0%. The largest visible minority groups in Saguenay are Black (0.9%), Arab (0.3%), and Latin American (0.3%). The area is home to 420 recent immigrants (i.e. those arriving between 2016 and 2021), who comprise about 0.3% of the total population. 145 of them come from France, and 140 come from various African countries, with Cameroon leading at 40 recent immigrants. In 2021, 71.5% of the population identified as

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 ...

, a 20.0% decrease from 2011, while 21.1% said they had no religious affiliation.

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

were the largest religious minority, making up 0.5% of the population. Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: ''(Percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding and multiple responses).''

Economy

Saguenay's economy is in transition. It is increasingly based on developing research and teaching in applied technologies for energy,

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

and

biomedical sciences Biomedical sciences are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science, or both, to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health. Such disciplines as medical microbio ...

. Saguenay has three large industrial parks totaling of commercial facilities: five city centres and shopping centres, six shopping centres, power centres, and five major commercial arteries. Saguenay, in the borough of La Baie, opened a pier in 2006 followed by the Bagotville wharf

cruise terminal A passenger terminal is a structure in a port which services passengers boarding and leaving water vessels such as ferries, cruise ships and ocean liners. Depending on the types of vessels serviced by the terminal, it may be named (for example) ...

in 2009, in order to accommodate some of the larger cruise ships such as MS Eurodam and

Queen Mary 2 RMS ''Queen Mary 2'' (also referred to as the ''QM2'') is a British transatlantic ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of Cunard Line since succeeding '' Queen Elizabeth 2'' in 2004. As of 2022, ''Queen Mary 2'' is the only ocean liner ...

. So far 200 cruise ships have visited La Baie, including 54 ships and over 50,000 passengers in 2017. In addition,

Rio Tinto Alcan Rio Tinto Alcan is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, based in Montreal. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan. It is the global leader of aluminium mining and p ...

confirmed in December 2010 investment of 750 million dollars to upgrade its pilot plant in Jonquière AP-60. The plant was estimated to be 40% more productive than the existing aluminum plant. The first phase included 38 tanks equipped with new technology, with an estimated production of 60,000 tons of aluminum per year. The first ingots were cast in the first quarter of 2013. According to 2010 data from the Institute of Statistics of Québec (ISQ), the per capita personal income in 2009 amounted to $31,677 versus $31,344 in 2008, a variation of 1.1%. On the other hand, the GDP of the Saguenay CMA in 2009 totaled $6 billion compared to the $9.1 billion GDP of Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. Cobalt Aircraft operates a manufacturing plant in the city. On January 17, 2011, the company chose Saguenay for the assembly plant of the aircraft Co50, an advanced, high-end propeller plane.

Sports

The city has been home to the

QMJHL The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

Chicoutimi Saguenéens The Chicoutimi Saguenéens are a junior ice hockey team which plays in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The team is based out of Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada (now a part of the city of Saguenay) and owned by the City of Saguenay. Th ...

since 1973. They play at the

Centre Georges-Vézina The Centre Georges-Vézina, formerly the Colisée de Chicoutimi, is a 4,724 capacity (3,683 seated) multi-purpose arena in Saguenay, Quebec, Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. The arena was built in 1949 and features an Hockey rink#Dimensions, Olympic-si ...

in the borough of Chicoutimi.
In 2008, the LNAH professional team

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu () is a city in eastern Montérégie in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec, about southeast of Montreal. It is situated on the west bank of the Richelieu River at the northernmost naviga ...

Summun-Chiefs moved to Saguenay and became the Saguenay 98.3. The team is now called

Jonquière Marquis The Jonquière Marquis are a hockey team in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH), which is based in the province of Quebec. They play at the Palais des Sports. The team has a long hockey history and have been known as Gladiateurs (1996–19 ...

Government

Municipal

has been mayor of Saguenay since 2021.

Josée Néron Josée Néron is a Canadian politician, who was elected mayor of Saguenay, Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without t ...

served as mayor from 2017 to 2021. Jean Tremblay had previously served as mayor of Saguenay from the municipal merger of 2002 until 2017. He was also mayor of the now defunct city of Chicoutimi from 1997 until 2001. The governing body of Saguenay is Saguenay City Council, which consists of the mayor and 15 city councillors. The councillors are elected from single-member districts. The city's three boroughs are

, and

. Each borough is subdivided into electoral districts, with each district being represented by a city councillor. Each borough has a borough president from among their city councilors.

Federal and provincial

Federally, Saguenay is part of two electoral districts. The riding of

Chicoutimi—Le Fjord Chicoutimi—Le Fjord (formerly known as Chicoutimi) is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1925. The riding consists of the northern part of the Chicoutimi borough o ...

, which includes the boroughs of

and

as well as the most of the

Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (''The Fjord of the Saguenay iver') is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is Saint-Honoré, which is also its most populous municipality. It is named for the f ...

, and the riding of

, which includes the borough of

as well as the southern part and parts of the Le Fjord-du-Saguenay RCM. Provincially, Saguenay is represented in four electoral districts. The electoral district of

includes the former city of Chicoutimi, and is represented by

Andrée Laforest Andrée Laforest is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election.

of the

Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ; , ) is a Quebec nationalist, autonomist and conservativeDubuc, which covers the part of Saguenay as well as the Le Fjord-du-Saguenay RCM, is represented by

François Tremblay François Tremblay is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election.

of the

Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ; , ) is a Quebec nationalist, autonomist and conservativeJonquière Jonquière (; ; 2021 population: 60,250) is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Saguenay River, near the borough of Chicoutimi. History Jonquière ...

, which covers most of the borough of Jonquière, is represented by

Sylvain Gaudreault Sylvain Gaudreault (born July 8, 1970) is a Canadian politician and teacher. He was the Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Jonquière in the city of Saguenay from 2007 to 2022. He represents the Parti Québécois. On May 6, ...

of the Parti Québécois.

Infrastructure

Thrice weekly passenger railway service is provided by

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

on the

Montreal–Jonquière train The Montreal–Jonquière train (formerly the ''Saguenay'') is a passenger train operated by Via Rail between Montreal and Saguenay (borough of Jonquière) in Quebec, Canada. The train once operated as far as Chicoutimi. The journey, from ...

, which runs from

Montreal Central Station Montreal Central Station (french: Gare centrale de Montréal) is the major inter-city rail station and a major commuter rail hub in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Nearly 11 million rail passengers use the station every year, making it the second-bu ...

Jonquière station Jonquière station is a Via Rail station in Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It is located on rue Saint-Dominique in the former city of Jonquière. It is the final stop of Via Rail's Montreal–Jonquière train The Montreal–Jonquière train (former ...

. The city is connected by highway to

Quebec Route 175 Route 175 is a major north–south highway on both sides of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Its southern terminus is in Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon at the junction of Quebec Route 218, Route 218 and its nort ...

to its south, and is also served by

Quebec Route 172 Route 172 is an east/west highway on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, and it parallels the Saguenay River on the north side of it. The western terminus of Route 172 is in Saint-Nazaire at the junction of Route 169, an ...

and

Quebec Route 170 Route 170 is a major east/west highway on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, and it parallels the Saguenay River on the south side of it. The western terminus of Route 170 is in Métabetchouan–Lac-à-la-Croix at the ju ...

, which run east–west to the north and south of the

, respectively. The city is also served by the

Bagotville Airport Canadian Forces Base Bagotville , commonly referred to as CFB Bagotville, and also known as Bagotville Airport or Saguenay-Bagotville Airport, is a Canadian Forces base located west of Bagotville in the city of Saguenay. Located in the centre ...

, which shares the

Canadian Forces Base Bagotville Canadian Forces Base Bagotville , commonly referred to as CFB Bagotville, and also known as Bagotville Airport or Saguenay-Bagotville Airport, is a Canadian Forces base located west of Bagotville in the city of Saguenay. Located in the centre ...

aerodrome. It operates daily flights to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport as well as flights to

and Sept-Îles. It operates seasonal flights to

Cancún Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...

, Mexico, and vacation destinations in Cuba. Another airfield, the former

Chicoutimi/Saint-Honoré Aerodrome Chicoutimi/Saint-Honoré Aerodrome is located east southeast of Saint-Honoré and approximately from Chicoutimi in Quebec, Canada. History The site, north of the Saguenay River, was selected by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the summer of 1 ...

air force base, is located to the north of the city. A pier in La Baie has been in operation since 2008 to accommodate

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

s and tourists. The project required investment of about $33.75 million for the construction of a wharf, a visitor centre ($5 million) and a port village. Saguenay derives power from its water resources. The city owns three hydroelectric power stations, one operating in the borough of Jonquière and two others, Pont-Arnaud and Chute-Garneau, in operation since spring 2011. Saguenay is one of several "megacities" where the pre-merger telephone rate centres have never been amalgamated. It is still split between four rate centres–Chicoutimi, Jonquière, La Baie and Laterrière. As a result, North American telephone customers placing calls to Saguenay may not recognize the charge details on their bills.

Education

The francophone primary and secondary public schools of Saguenay are managed by two boards, the School Board of Jonquière, which has 11,015 students and the school board of Rives-du-Saguenay, with 11,048 students. These figures include 38 primary schools, seven secondary schools and five vocational training centres in the city, and institutions of neighboring municipalities of Upper and Lower Saguenay. The private elementary Apostolic School of Chicoutimi has 160 students. The Seminary of Chicoutimi has 1,100 high school students. Saguenay also has primary and secondary schools in English, with 200 students; Riverside Regional School is the responsibility of the Central Québec School Board. At the college level, Saguenay has two colleges, located in Jonquière and in Chicoutimi, with a combined 5,500 students. In addition to offering pre-university programs, and similar curricula, each of the schools has unique programs. For example, the Cégep de Jonquière offers technical training in Art and Media Technology, while that of Chicoutimi offers technical training in piloting aircraft. The University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (UQAC) is located in Saguenay; this francophone campus of the province's network has 6,500 students.Katerine Belley-Murray, « Projet structurant à portée internationale, L'horizon infini de la biobanque », Le Quotidien, 25 octobre 2011, p. 21. It provides education at university level. As the only university in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, this campus attracts students from across Quebec and la Francophonie. Located near downtown, the Chicoutimi campus includes a sports pavilion and the pavilion of the Humanities. The university has a flagship research centre in Arctic ice and other conditions; departments of Forestry, Medicine, and Arts; and the centre of aluminium technology.

Research

Saguenay has several main components of the regional aluminum sector: the Quebec Centre for Research and Development of Aluminum (CQRDA), the Centre for Aluminum Technology of UQAC (CTA), the University Centre for Aluminium Research (CURAL), and college and government training programs. In 2007, the Quebec government announced, in conjunction with Genome Quebec,

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

, the Centre for Health and Social Services and UQAC Chicoutimi, the creation of a biobank specializing in genomics research. The CSSS de Chicoutimi also specializes in research in primary care medicine and chronic illness and the rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders.

Culture

Cultural events in the Saguenay region include the

Saguenay International Short Film Festival The Saguenay International Short Film Festival (french: Regard sur le court métrage au Saguenay) is an annual film festival in Saguenay, Quebec, Canada, which presents a program of short films. Presented since 1996, the event is one of the most ...

(french: Regard sur le court métrage au Saguenay).Jean-Baptiste Hervé
"23e Festival Regard : Accueillir le monde"
''

Voir ''Voir'' was a francophone alternative weekly newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, published by Communications Voir. ''Voir'' was founded by Pierre Paquet in November 1986. The first issue of the newspaper was published on 27 November 1986. Later on t ...

'', March 7, 2019.

Media

Sister cities

Camrose, Alberta Camrose ( ) is a city in central Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Camrose County. Located along Highway 13 it had its beginnings as a railroad hub. History The area around Camrose was first settled by Europeans around 1900. At that time t ...

References

External links

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{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Territories equivalent to a regional county municipality Populated places established in 2002 2002 establishments in Quebec