Baie-D'Urfé (, ; previously spelled Baie d'Urfé or Baie d'Urfee) is an on-island suburb of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It is part of the

West Island The West Island (, ) is the unofficial name given to the city, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Lachine (specific ...

area of the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

.Town of Baie-D'Urfé website
/ref> As part of the

2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal Montreal was one of the cities in Quebec affected by the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec. On January 1, 2002, all the municipalities on the island of Montreal were merged into the city of Montreal. However, following a change of ...

, Baie-D'Urfé was merged into the city of Montreal on January 1, 2002, joining with neighbouring

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

to create the borough of

Beaconsfield–Baie-D'Urfé Beaconsfield–Baie-D'Urfé is a former borough in the West Island area of Montreal, Quebec. It was composed of the municipalities of Beaconsfield and Baie-D'Urfé through a forced merger on January 1, 2002. On June 20, 2004, both Beaconsfield ...

. After a change of provincial government in 2003 and a provincial referendum in 2004, Beaconsfield and Baie-D'Urfé both voted to demerge and were reconstituted as independent municipalities on January 1, 2006. However, they remain part of the

urban agglomeration of Montreal The urban agglomeration of Montreal (, ) is an Urban agglomerations of Quebec, urban agglomeration in Quebec, Canada. Coextensive with the List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Montreal, it is a territory equivalent to a regional c ...

Toponymy

Baie-D'Urfé is named after

François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé, S.S. (1641 – June 30, 1701) was a French nobleman and Sulpician priest who became the first resident pastor of the parish of Saint-Louis-du-Haut-de-l'Île (in what is now the town of Baie-D'Urfé) on the Is ...

, a French

Sulpician The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (; PSS), also known as the Sulpicians, is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, where it was founded. The members of the Society add the ...

priest known as l'Abbé d'Urfé. He was the community's first pastor, who was sent by the ''Gentlemen of Saint-Sulpice'' to serve as a missionary for the parish of Saint-Louis-du-Bout-de-l'Île (which was later renamed in his honour), a small community of settlers, soldiers, traders, and Indians. The town's name went through several typographical changes: prior to 2002, the town's name was written as Baie-d'Urfé (no capital "d"); prior to 1969, place names in Quebec were not hyphenated; and prior to 1960, its original name was officially spelled Baie d'Urfée.

Overview

Baie-D'Urfé is largely a "

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

" that extends from Autoroute 40 to

Lac Saint-Louis Lake Saint-Louis (, ) is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence and Ottawa River, Ottawa rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake. Lake St. Louis is a widening of th ...

. It is composed of both a residential and industrial sector. The residential sector is characterized by a wide range of house types and sizes, all based on spacious lots. The residential section of the municipality has retained a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

charm, accentuated by its lack of sidewalks and limited commercial activity. It is a favourite spot for boaters, who use either the local yacht or boat clubs. The community is within the part of the Island of Montreal locally referred to as the

. North of Autoroute 20 and the CN and CP railway lines lies a modest-sized industrial park. The industrial park, covering approximately a third of the town's land area, is somewhat isolated from the rest of the town, features its own off-hours security patrol, and is home to a number of large industrial firms' operations. The town's active community members participate in many of the town's associated or private clubs, including the ''Baie-D'Urfé

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

Club''. It competes with a few other suburbs for top spot in the rankings of highest average household incomes in Canada. The median income for a household in Baie-D'Urfé was $128,611, and the median income for a family was $194,335. Males had an average income of $112,882, compared to $62,245 for females.

Demographics

According to the

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; ) is an agency of the Quebec provincial government charged with ensuring legislative requirements with respect to the right to use French are respected. Established on 24 March 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the ...

, Baie-D'Urfé has been officially recognized as a bilingual municipality since 2005-11-02. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Baie-D'Urfé 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.

Local government

The current

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Baie-D'Urfé is Heidi Ektvedt.Baie-D'Urfé Town Council
/ref> There are six Town Councillors: #Nadia Bissada #Tony Brown #Brigitte Chartrand #Stephen Gruber #Wanda Lowensteyn #Tom Thompson Baie-D'Urfé is the first town in Canada to have a

youth council Youth councils, also known as youth cabinets, youth assemblies or youth parliaments, are a form of youth voice engaged in community decision-making. They are appointed or elected bodies that exist on local, state, provincial, regional, national, ...

; this consists of young people aged 10 years and up, and is entitled the Junior Council. It was established in 2008. The town celebrated its centennial in 2011, and the Junior Council re-enacted two of the town's earliest council meetings (which had been held originally on July 18 and September 16, 1911, respectively).

List for former mayors

List of former mayors: * Vivian de Vere Dowker (1911–1917) * Fred. J. Shaw (1917–1925) * John Watterson (1925–1931) * Erastus W. Wilson (1931–1933) * Walter Maughan (1933–1935, 1937–1941, 1943–1945) * C. J. Smith (1935–1937) * Alexander Howard Pirie (1941–1943) * W. Frederic MacBride (1945–1947) * Frederic W. Case (1947–1951) * Jean Gélinas (1951–1955) * William Harvey Cruickshank (1955–1957) * Thomas Roche Lee (1957–1961) * Lars J. Firing (1961–1965) * A. Clark Graham (1965–1977) * David H. Kennedy (1977–1983) * Anne Myles (1983–2002) * Maria Tutino (2006–2020) * Heidi Ektvedt (2020–present)

Education

The '' Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys'' operates Francophone public schools that, until June 15, 2020, were operated by the '' Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys''. The change was a result of a law passed by the Quebec government that changed the school board system from denominational to

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. École primaire Joseph-Henrico is located in the city. The Lester B. Pearson School Board operates English-language public schools. Dorset Elementary School is in the city. A portion is zoned to Christmas Park Elementary School and St. Edmund Elementary School in

.School Board Map
." Lester B. Pearson School Board. Retrieved on September 28, 2017. The Alexander von Humboldt Schule Montréal, a private German international school, is in the town.

References

External links

Town of Baie-D'Urfé – municipal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baie-D'Urfé Cities and towns in Quebec Island of Montreal municipalities Bilingual cities and towns in Quebec