Cacouna () is a municipality in the

Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality Rivière-du-Loup () is a regional county municipality in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. Its most important city is Rivière-du-Loup, which contains more than half of the population. Major industries include pulp and paper, ot ...

within the

Bas-Saint-Laurent The Bas-Saint-Laurent (, 'Lower Saint-Lawrence) is an administrative region of Quebec located along the south shore of the lower Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The river widens at this place, later becoming a bay that discharges into the Atlan ...

region of

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is located on the south shore of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

along Route 132. The municipality of Cacouna was created in March 2006 through the amalgamation of the municipality of Saint-Georges-de-Cacouna and the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Saint-Georges-de-Cacouna. With a population of 1,900, Cacouna is noted for the quality and unique architectural heritage of its buildings and for the richness and diversity of its agricultural life. The deep water port of Gros-Cacouna is a vital asset in the region's future development. Cacouna is a member of the association The Most Beautiful Villages in Quebec. 'Cacouna' is also the name of an

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

of the Quebec

Maliseet The Wolastoqiyik, (, also known as the Maliseet or Malecite () are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their terri ...

Nation, more specifically

Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk (Viger) First Nation The Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation, formerly known as Maliseet Viger 1 First Nation, is an Algonquian People of the Wəlastəkwewiyik (Maliseet) Nation in Quebec, Canada. As of May, 2024 they were reported as having a registered population ...

, located in the administrative region of Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Etymology

Many see in the name 'Cacouna' Cree words, or , meaning

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

or dwelling or dwelling place of porcupine. The actual location of Cacouna, however, puts this interpretation in doubt as the Cree have never visited this region. The Montagnais could have given the area its name during one of their crossings of the

in the past, as the word also means porcupine in their language. More likely, though, the name could have come from the

word . The name 'Saint George' was retained by Bishop Plessis in 1809 at the request of Malcolm Fraser, lord of Murray Bay (La Malbaie) from 1733 to 1815. Saint George, an officer martyred in Palestine in 303 AD, is a patron of the English people and his battle against the dragon has been represented multiple times in art.

History

The land had been occupied since 1721, by a number of families. After the deportation of

Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...

from Quebec in 1758, several Acadians established residence on the land, living as squatters. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, with the construction of the railway to

Rivière-du-Loup Rivière-du-Loup (; 2021 population 20,118) is a small city (Quebec), city on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The city is the seat for the Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality and the Judicial districts of Quebec ...

and the Maritime provinces, several wealthy Anglophone families from

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 ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

built luxury villas in Cacouna, some of which still stand today. In the summer, the village was as a site of beachgoing, celebration and relaxation for these vacationers, providing employment to villagers working in the service industry. The vacationers began to slowly leave Cacouna during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Shipowner and banker

Sir Montagu Allan Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Hugh Andrew Montagu Allan, (October 13, 1860 – September 26, 1951) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the principal heir of his father, Sir Hugh Allan, and became deputy chairman of the family-owned ...

had Château Montrose, his summer home, built at Cacouna in 1900. In 1941 Château Montrose was sold to the

Order of Friars Minor Capuchin The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. OFMCap) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFMObs, now OFM), the ...

. Cacouna is also the birthplace of

Mario Dumont Mario Dumont (born May 19, 1970) is a Canadian television personality and former politician in Quebec, Canada. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA), and the leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), from 1994 to 2 ...

, former leader of the

Action démocratique du Québec The (, ), commonly referred to as the , was a right-wing populist and conservative provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. On the sovereignty question, it defined itself as autonomist; it had support from nationalists and federalists. Its ...

Geography

A large part of the banks of the Saint Lawrence river in the eastern half of the village is bordered by public land, managed by the

Canadian Wildlife Service The Canadian Wildlife Service or CWS (), is a Branch of the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada, a department of the Government of Canada. Founded in 1947 as Dominion Wildlife Service, it is Canada's national wildlife agency resp ...

. The property is divided into two parts: * The Gros-Cacouna marsh is an ornithological site that covers nearly including a portion of the peninsula near the Gros-Cacouna harbour. Almost of trails allow visitors to discover many species of birds in their natural habitat, most notably waterfowl, such as the

black guillemot The black guillemot or tystie (''Cepphus grylle'') is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the ...

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes and in coastal areas and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska ...

, greater snow goose,

common eider The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breed ...

, American black duck and Barrow's goldeneye and shorebirds, such as the black-bellied plover, semipalmated plover,

short-billed dowitcher The short-billed dowitcher (''Limnodromus griseus''), like its congener the long-billed dowitcher, is a medium-sized, stocky, long-billed shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It is an inhabitant of North America, Central America, the Caribbea ...

, yellow rail along with Le Conte's sparrow and

American white pelican The American white pelican (''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos'') is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Costa Rica, in winter. Taxonomy The Americ ...

among the many other species. * The Baie de l'Isle-Verte National Wildlife Area covers the majority of the land between the path at Rivière-des-Vases and the Saint Lawrence river estuary. The

Regional County Municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM (, , 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 regional municipality. Regional county municipalit ...

of Rivière-du-Loup also manages the public land bordering the estuary. There are trails and lookouts on hills overlooking the Saint Lawrence River that allow for a panoramic view of the region.

Economy

The port of Gros Cacouna is a deep-water seaport with a water depth of . It was inaugurated in 1981, after a wait of over 25 years due to regional proceedings. The quantity of raw material transhipped in the port has decreased significantly over the last ten years. In 1995, the port was mostly used to export 290,000 tonnes of forest and pulp and paper products. Yet, only 20,000 tons of these products were loaded in 2005. They were partially replaced by cement (100,000 tonnes in 2005) exported to the

Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of Northern America is a binational Canadian– American region centered on the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Ca ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The port is also used to unload cement imported from Brazil (50,000 tons in 2005), road salt from the

Magdalen Islands The Magdalen Islands (, ) are a Canadian archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Since 2005, the 12-island archipelago is divided into two municipalities: the majority-francophone Municipality of Îles-de-la-Madeleine and the majority-angloph ...

and various metal products. Since 2005, several wind turbine parts have also been transhipped in the port.

Cacouna Energy

A controversial project of building a methane terminal in the port of Gros Cacouna was announced on September 1, 2004. The project was proposed by ''Cacouna Energy'', a consortium of TransCanada Pipelines and

Petro-Canada Petro-Canada (colloquially known as Petro-Can) is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor En ...

. According to the proposed scenario,

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

would be imported from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to Gros-Cacouna, where it would be regasified and then distributed on the North-American market via a new gas pipeline. A joint review panel composed of the ''Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement'' and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency submitted its report on November 1, 2006. The panel concluded that the project would be unlikely to have significant environmental impacts as long as the panel's recommendations were followed and that mitigation measures were implanted. In 2008, the proponent announced that it would delay its methane terminal project indefinitely until the supply conditions of liquefied natural gas improved in the worldwide market."La Presse", Tout cela pour cela?,February 16, 2009
/ref>

Energy East proposal

On November 10, 2014, it was revealed by ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' that the terminus of the proposed petroleum pipeline called 'Energy East' would be located in Cacouna. TransCanada's target market for the goods is

TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas explorati ...

, a French petroleum refiner which is part-owned by the Desmarais family, who have interests in the

oil sands Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. They are either loose sands, or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with bitumen (a dense and extremely viscous ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. The oil would transit from the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the

Quebec Bridge The Quebec Bridge () is a road, rail, and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Sainte-Foy, Quebec City, Sainte-Foy (a former suburb that in 2002 became the arrondissement Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge in Quebec Cit ...

, to reach the south shore at Levis, Quebec. The economics of trans-oceanic shipment is the chief reason for this new port installation.

References

External links

Site officiel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacouna, Quebec Municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Bas-Saint-Laurent