Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western

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 includes the city of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

, the municipality of

Val-des-Monts Val-des-Monts () is a municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada, located about north of Ottawa, Ontario. It has a population of 13,328 residents in 2021. Formed in 1975 by the merger of the towns of Perkins, Saint-Pierre-de-Wakefiel ...

, the municipality of Cantley and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

opposite Canada's capital,

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. It has a land area of and its population was 405,158 inhabitants as of 2021. From 2017 to 2021, the Outaouais has a lower per capita disposable income than the rest of Quebec. It was $32,364 in 2021, compared to $34,180 in Quebec overall. In 2021, the unfavourable margin remained stable at 5.3%.

History

The name of the region comes from the French name for the Ottawa River, which in turn comes from the French name for the Indigenous

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...

that lived near the region. Prior to European arrival in the region, the areas along the Ottawa River were commonly used by various tribes to trade and gather. The oldest European settlement in the region is

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

(now a neighbourhood of Gatineau) which was founded in 1800 by

Philemon Wright Philemon Wright (September 3, 1760 – June 3, 1839) was a farmer, lumberman and entrepreneur who founded the Ottawa River timber trade in 1806. He was also founder of what he named Columbia Falls Village, mostly known as (or Wrightstown) a ...

as Wright's Town. The settlement quickly became involved in the lumber trade, which continued along the Ottawa River until the late 20th century. None of the original town buildings remain today, as they were destroyed in the

1900 Hull–Ottawa fire The Hull-Ottawa fire of 1900 was a devastating fire in 1900 that destroyed much of Hull, Quebec, and large portions of Ottawa, Ontario. Incident Around 10 AM on April 26 a defective chimney on a house in Hull caught fire, which quickly spread ...

. Hull remained a city until 2002, when it was merged with several neighboring cities to form the current city of

Demography

For the next few years, the Outaouais is predicted to enjoy continuous demographic increase. From 2021 to 2026, the region's population is predicted to expand faster than the rest of Quebec (+4.8% against +4.2%). Longer-term projections show that the region's population will expand faster than Quebec's for each following five-year period. Year after year, the Outaouais' net migration (inflows minus outflows) with other areas is positive. Yet, for the first time in 20 years, the area had negative net migration in 2020-2021. Historically, the Outaouais area averaged positive inter-regional migration balances, gaining 541 residents each year for a net rate of +0.14% from 2016 to 2021. Interregional migration rate * 2016-2017 : 0,16 % * 2017-2018 : 0,25 % * 2018-2019 : 0,19 % * 2019-2020 : 0,12 % * 2020-2021 : -0,01 %

Economy

In 2021, the situation on the Outaouais labour market has improved. Employment increased by 9,500 positions. The participation rate increased to 63.7%. The negative gap between the region's participation rate and that of Quebec narrowed from 1.0 to 0.4 percentage points. The employment rate increased to 60.2% in the region. The region now has an employment rate comparable to that of Quebec (60.1%). Since 1999, the Outaouais has generally had a lower unemployment rate than Quebec as a whole. In 2021, this trend continued; the unemployment rate decreased by 2.5 percentage points to 5.6%, compared to 6.1% for Quebec as a whole. This decrease is explained by the improvement in employment. The Outaouais' industrial structure matches its mission, which is concentrated on government services. As a result, the economy is heavily geared towards the service sector. In 2021, the primary sector in the Outaouais accounted for a lower proportion of jobs than the primary sector in Quebec as a whole (1.4% vs. 2.2%). Also, the manufacturing sector employed fewer people than the rest of Quebec (4.0% vs. 11.3%). Nonetheless, the construction sector employed more people in the Outaouais (8.4%) than in Quebec overall (6.7%). The region's economy is dominated by

tertiarization The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the sec ...

. The tertiary sector's percentage of total employment (86.1%) is substantially larger than that reported in Quebec overall (79.7%). This finding is explained by the significance of public services. In 2021, the Outaouais would account for 4.7% of Quebec's population and 4.6% of its jobs.

Administrative divisions

Regional county municipalities

First Nations Reserves

Kitigan Zibi Kitigan Zibi (also known as River Desert, and designated as Maniwaki 18 until 1994) is a First Nations reserve of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, an Algonquin band. It is situated near the confluence of the Désert and Gatineau Ri ...

* Rapid Lake

Major communities

* Cantley * Chelsea *

Déléage Déléage () is a town and municipality in La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Gatineau River opposite Maniwaki. Deleage and Deléage are frequently used alternate s ...

* Gracefield * L'Ange-Gardien *

La Pêche La Pêche (, ; meaning "Fishing") is a municipality along both sides of the Gatineau River in Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada, about north of downtown Gatineau. Bordering on th ...

Maniwaki Maniwaki is a town in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is situated north of Ottawa, Ontario, on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Route 105 and Route 107, near Route 117 (Trans-Canada Highway). The town is the administrative centre fo ...

Mansfield-et-Pontefract Mansfield-et-Pontefract is a municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality of western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Ottawa River, northwest of Gatineau. It is the most populated municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Muni ...

* Papineauville *

Pontiac Pontiac most often refers to: * Pontiac (Odawa leader) ( – 1769), Native American war chief *Pontiac (automobile), a former General Motors brand Pontiac may also refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apo ...

* Saint-André-Avellin *

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; , ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great Britain. From a latitudinal s ...

School districts

Francophone

* Centre de services scolaire au Cœur-des-Vallées *

Centre de services scolaire des Draveurs The Centre de services scolaire des Draveurs is one of 4 public Francophone school service centres operating in the Outaouais region, Quebec. The school board was created in 1986 in the old city of Gatineau about 15 years before amalgamation. Th ...

* Centre de services scolaire des Hauts-Bois-de-l'Outaouais * Centre de services scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais

Anglophone

* Western Québec School Board

References

External links

Portail régional de l'Outaouais
Official website
Répertoire des clubs de golf de la région de l'Outaouais
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outaouais (Region) Canada geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Administrative regions of Quebec