Coteau-du-Lac () is a small city in southwestern

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 on the north shore of the

St. 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. Lawren ...

in the

Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality Vaudreuil-Soulanges () is a regional county municipality in Quebec, Canada. It is located on a triangular peninsula in the western Montérégie region of Quebec, formed by the confluence of the Ottawa River to the north, and the St. Lawrence Rive ...

. The name of the town comes from the French word ''coteau'' which means "slope" and from its location on the north shore of Lake Saint Francis. The

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

of the Coteau-du-Lac canal is the location of the first canal lock system in North America. The city has an

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

. The population was 7,044 as of the

2016 Canadian Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

History

The place was mentioned in 1687 by Marquis de Denonville. His record stated that "'' du Lac'' is a place where one stopped on the way to the ''Rapides d'en Haut''", referring to a small hillside (French: ''coteau'') on the north side of the

near the mouth of Lake Saint Francis (French: ''lac Saint-François''). In 1779, the Coteau-du-Lac canal was constructed to bypass the numerous rapids between Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Francis. Two years later, a military detachment was stationed there. In 1789, its post office opened under the name Coteau-du-Lac. During the War of 1812, a fort was built to protect the canal. In 1832, the Parish of Saint-Ignace was created. The following year, the parish was civilly established under the name "Saint Ignace du Côteau du Lac". In 1845, it was formed into a municipality, but abolished in 1847. In 1855, it was reestablished as the Parish Municipality of Saint-Ignace-du-Côteau-du-Lac. In 1907, the Village Municipality of Côteau-du-Lac was formed out of Saint-Ignace-du-Côteau-du-Lac (orthography was later changed to "Coteau" without

circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from "bent around"a translation of ...

). These two entities merged again on 6 February 1982, to form the Municipality of Coteau-du-Lac, which changed statutes in 2007 to become a city. In mid-2013, around 120 people were temporarily evacuated, and two people died after an explosion in the local fireworks factory. In early April 2023, 3,672 people lost electric power for up to several days as the result of a massive power outage caused by an extended period of freezing rain in the region.

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 ...

, Coteau-du-Lac 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

List of former mayors (since formation of current municipality): * Joseph Henri Paul Fernand Desforges (1982–1989) * Pierre Chevrier (1989–1996) * Robert Sauvé (1996–2013) * Guy Jasmin (2013–2017) * Andrée Brosseau (2017–present)

Education

Commission Scolaire des Trois-Lacs operates Francophone schools. *École de Coteau-du-Lac (pavillons Académie-Wilson, de l'Éclusière, and Saint-Ignace) Lester B. Pearson School Board operates Anglophone schools. * Evergreen Elementary and Forest Hill Elementary (Junior Campus and Senior campus) in Saint-Lazare or Soulanges Elementary School in Saint-Télesphore

Notable people

* Jules Fournier (1884-1918) was a Canadian writer and newspaper owner

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coteau-Du-Lac, Quebec Cities and towns in Quebec Quebec populated places on the Saint Lawrence River Incorporated places in Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality