Matagami (, ) is a small town in
Quebec, Canada. It is located north of
Amos, on
Matagami Lake, at the northern terminus of
Route 109
Route 109 or Highway 109 can refer to multiple roads:
Canada
* New Brunswick Route 109
* Prince Edward Island Route 109
* Quebec Route 109
China
* China National Highway 109
Costa Rica
* National Route 109
India
* National Highway 1 ...
and the start of the
James Bay Road (French: ''Route de la Baie James''). It is enclaved within the
local municipality of
Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government, but administratively independent of it. The town had a population of 1,526 as of the
Canada 2011 Census.
History

Matagami was founded in 1963 with the development of
mining in the area. Previously, it existed only as a very small
prospecting camp accessible only by
float plane, but after a viable mineral deposit was found in the late 1950s a permanent settlement began to be established. In 1962, the Quebec Toponomy Commission attempted to name the new community Mazenod after
Charles-Joseph-Eugène de Mazenod, the founder of the
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, but after a public outcry by local residents the community was named after Matagami Lake.
The name Matagami means "the confluence of waters" in the
Cree language
Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...
.
The first church service in Matagami was held on 17 April 1962.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The