Brochet () is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in

Northern Manitoba Northern Manitoba (also known as NorMan or Nor-Man) is a geographic and cultural region of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Manitoba originally encompassed only a small square around the Red River Colony, but it was extended north to the 60th ...

on the northern shore of Reindeer Lake near the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

border; it is designated as a northern community. There is no year-round road service to the mostly

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

population. A winter road is in place only a few months a year. Air service at Brochet Airport is the main link outside the community. It takes roughly one hour to reach Brochet from

Thompson, Manitoba Thompson is a List of cities in Manitoba, city in north-central Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada, the largest city and most populated municipality in Northern Manitoba. Situated along the Burntwood River, Thompson is located north of Lake Winnipeg a ...

, by air, and approximately 4 to 6 hours via winter road from Lynn Lake, depending on road conditions. In Northern Manitoba, there are a few unincorporated communities aside from Brochet, such as Granville Lake and South Indian Lake. There are also several

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

and Aboriginal communities, such as: Barren Lands First Nation, Northlands First Nation, Sayisi Dene, Split Lake Cree, Fox Lake, Shamattawa, and Mathias Colomb.

History

Founded as a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

trading post and

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

mission, the community was originally called Fort du Brochet, first appearing on maps in 1883. The community's name was shortened in 1924 to ''Brochet'', which is the French name of the

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

, commonly known in Manitoba as the "jackfish." Brochet's

inhabitants historically ranged over a wide area, and 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 ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

era, other trading posts once competed for their business. Nearby locations of this type include Le Pensie, also known as Sandy Hills, which closed in 1930.

Climate

The climate of Brochet is extremely variable. The hottest temperature ever recorded was 33.5 C on August 11, 1991, and the lowest -51.7 C on February 15, 1966.

Demographics

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 ...

, Brochet had a population of 64 living in 31 of its 31 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 118. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Adjoining Brochet is the territory of the Barren Lands First Nation, called Brochet 197. These two communities, Brochet 197 with 547 residents and Brochet with 146 residents, form a population centre of 693 people also called Brochet.

References

{{Coord, 57, 52, 47, N, 101, 40, 16, W, display=title Designated places in Manitoba Northern communities in Manitoba Indian reserves in Manitoba

History

Climate

Demographics

See also

References