La Pocatière () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality in the Bas-Saint-Laurent 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.

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 ...

, La Pocatière 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.

History

The name La Pocatière refers to François Pollet de La Combe-Pocatière (c. 1630-1672). Almost a year after his marriage to Marie-Anne Juchereau, on November 29, 1669, François Pollet, an officer of the Carignan-Sallières regiment, received from his father-in-law a seigneury half a league wide and two leagues deep in the land then called Grande Anse. After her husband's death in 1672, Anne Juchereau became seigneuress and gave her seigneury the name Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. Before the arrival of the French, Grande Anse, which stretched for about fifteen kilometers between Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies and the tip of the Ouelle River, was called Kamitsitsit or Kannissigit by the Aboriginal people (Commission de toponymie du Québec). The name meant "place where there are many beavers." In 1678, the bishop of the diocese of Quebec established the parish of La Combe, commemorating the first lord. It was then served by a missionary until the arrival of the first priest in 1715. In popular usage, it was sometimes referred to at the time as Sainte-Anne-de-la-Grand-Anse or Sainte-Anne-du-Sud. The name Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière was also adopted in 1831 to designate the village's first post office. Although the seigneurial system continued, 319 local municipalities were created in 1845 following the adoption of an act repealing previous municipal ordinances or laws. Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière was one of these. Finally, the village municipality of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière was created in January 1960. It changed its name and status to the municipality of Ville de La Pocatière on November 24, 1961.

Economy

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

has a plant which manufactures subway and railway cars: *

R62A (New York City Subway car) The R62A is a New York City Subway car model built between 1984 and 1987 by Bombardier Transportation for the A Division (New York City Subway), A Division. The cars were built in La Pocatière, Quebec, with final assembly done in Auburn, New ...

* New Technology Prototype R110B (New York City Subway car) * R142 (New York City Subway car) * R179 (New York City Subway car) *

Long Island Railroad The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail ...

and

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

M7/A cars *

Montreal Metro The Montreal Metro (, ) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure ...

MR-73 and MPM-10 * Boston

Red Line (MBTA) The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south and east underground from Alewife station in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, North Cambr ...

1800-85 series cars * MultiLevel Coach cars *

VIA Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

LRC (train) set * shell for

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...

subway cars (T1 and TR) and streetcars (

Flexity Outlook The Bombardier Flexity Outlook is a series of low-floored trams of the Two-rooms-and-a-bath car, multi-articulated type, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. Part of the larger Bombardier Flexity product line (many of which are not low-floo ...

) The plant was built in 1961 to build Moto-Ski snowmobiles and the plant was converted to railcars in 1971Bombardier transportation site fact sheet. La Pocatiere Canada
/ref> (Bombardier continued to market Moto-Ski until 1985).

Arts and culture

La Pocatière is home to the Musée François-Pilote, a museum of

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

. The museum features exhibits on the history of agricultural education, a number of historical period rooms, stuffed bird and animal displays, and presentations on other aspects of local history.

Attractions

Near the city are small isolated hills known as

monadnock An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

s. The Montagne du College-de-Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière is 119 metres high.

Government

City council consists of a mayor and six councillors: As of 2024 the council consisted of: * Mayor: Vincent Bérubé * Councillors: ** 1: Guillaume Dufour ** 2: Émilie Dionne ** 3: Marie-Claude Godin ** 4: Mario Guignard ** 5: Simon Fissette ** 6: Steve Leclerc

Education

There are three post-secondary institutions in La Pocatière: * Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière - c. 1827 * Cégep de La Pocatière c. 1967 * Institut de technologie agroalimentaire - agro-food technology institute with focus on equines (horses) at the La Pocatière campus The town has three public schools under the Commission scolaire de Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup: * École Sacré-Coeur - elementary school * École Polyvalente La Pocatière - secondary school * Éducation des adultes - adult learning

Sister cities

La Pocatière is twinned with: * Coutances in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Notable people

* Hélène Alarie (1941-2023), politician * Jean-François Caron, writer * Bernard Généreux, politician * Jean-Guy Hudon, politician * Jean-Marie Pelletier, politician

References

External links

City web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Pocatiere, Quebec Cities and towns in Quebec Canada geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia