Roberval () is a city on the south-western shore of

Lac Saint-Jean Lac Saint-Jean (, ) is a large, relatively shallow lake in south-central Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian Highlands. It is situated north of the Saint Lawrence River, into which it drains via the Saguenay River. It covers an area of , and is ...

in the Le Domaine-du-Roy Regional County Municipality 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. With a population of 9,840 in the

Canada 2021 Census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, 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 overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

, it is the fourth largest city on this lake after

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'', an upcoming film by Sally Potter * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' ( ...

Dolbeau-Mistassini Dolbeau-Mistassini () is a town in northern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Mistassibi River, Riviere aux Rats and the Mistassini River, on Lac Saint-Jean. Dolbeau-Mistassini is in the Maria-Chapdelaine Regional County Municipality and ...

and Saint-Félicien. It is the seat of the Domaine-du-Roy RCM and the main service centre for the region with a

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

and some government services. It is also the seat of the

judicial district A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction. By continent Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Aus ...

of Roberval. It is the only Lac Saint-Jean town whose core is directly on the lakeshore. Benoît Bouchard, former cabinet Minister and Canadian Ambassador in France, and Michel Gauthier, former federal

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

, represented the area in the federal parliament.

Bernard Lord Bernard Lord (born September 27, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer, business executive and former politician. He served as the 30th premier of New Brunswick from 1999 to 2006. Lord was appointed as board chair of Ontario Power Generation in 2014. Ear ...

the former

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

was born here. Roberval was the 2008 winner of ''

Kraft Hockeyville ''Kraft Hockeyville'' is an annual competition sponsored by Kraft Heinz, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association in which communities compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. The winning community ...

''. In their newly renovated arena, Roberval hosted an NHL preseason game between the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

and the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Con ...

on September 23, 2008. Roberval is the home of the Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean, an annual swimming competition held since 1955. The major competition feature the crossing of Lake St-Jean over a distance of . The 2010 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships were also hosted in Roberval.

History

Circa 1850, the first settlers began to colonize the area, followed afterwards by families especially from the

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...

area. The settlement, the oldest village on the shores of Lake Saint-Jean, was first known as Notre-Dame-du-Lac-Saint-Jean, named after the parish founded in 1854. A few years later in 1857, the Municipality of Lac-Saint-Jean was formed but in 1859 was split into several municipalities including the Municipality of Roberval. It was named after the geographic township of Roberval, which in turn was named by surveyor Joseph Bouchette in honour of the first Lieutenant General of New France

Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval Jean-François () is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958) ...

(1496–1560). In 1862, the Roberval post office opened. Lac Saint-Jean 1928

In 1884, the settlement separated from the municipality to form the Village Municipality of Roberval. It experienced rapid growth in the 1880s when Horace Jansen Beemer, an American entrepreneur from Philadelphia, came to Roberval. He established logging and sawmill businesses and led the construction of the railroad to

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

in 1888. Beemer personally took care of logging, land speculation, and construction of railway bridges. He also built a tourist complex in Roberval in 1898, centred on fishing for landlocked salmon and organized excursions to the Grande Décharge (outlet of Lake Saint-Jean). A fire destroyed the Grand Hotel Roberval in 1908, putting an abrupt end to luxury tourism in the Lake Saint-Jean area. In 1903, the village of Roberval gained town (''ville'') status, and in 1956, city (''cité'') status. In 1976, it merged with the Municipality of Roberval to form the current city.

Geography

Climate

Roberval has a cold and highly seasonal

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfb''), with mild summers, cold winters and high annual snowfall. Due to

seasonal lag Seasonal lag is the phenomenon whereby the date of maximum average air temperature at a geographical location on a planet is delayed until some time after the date of maximum daylight (i.e. the summer solstice). This also applies to the minimum ...

and influence from the nearby lake, September is well above the

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

threshold as the fourth warmest month.

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 overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

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 ...

, Roberval 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. In 2021, the median age was 52.4, as opposed to 41.6 for all of Canada. French was the

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

of 98.0% of residents in 2021. The next most common mother tongues were

Atikamekw The Atikamekw are an Indigenous people in Canada. Their historic territory, ('Our Land'), is in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec (about north of Montreal). One of the main communities is Manawan, about northeast of Montreal. ...

at 0.8%, followed by

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, English, and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

at 0.3%. 0.2% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.5% who reported both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue. As of 2021,

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

comprised 11.0% of the population, most of whom were

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

, and visible minorities contributed 0.8%. The largest visible minority groups in Dolbeau-Mistassini are Latin American (0.3%) and Black (0.2%). In 2021, 79.8% of the population identified as

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, a 14.6% decrease from 2011, while 13.6% said they had no religious affiliation.

Baptists Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

were the largest religious minority, making up 0.3% of the population. Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: ''(Percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding and multiple responses).'' Population trend: * Population in 2021: 9,840 (2016 to 2021 population change: -2.1%) * Population in 2016: 10,046 * Population in 2011: 10,227 * Population in 2006: 10,544 * Population in 2001: 10,906 * Population in 1996: 11,640 * Population in 1991: 11,628 * Population in 1986: 11,448 * Population in 1981: 11,391 * Population in 1976: 8,543 * Population in 1971: 8,330 * Population in 1966: 8,552 * Population in 1961: 7,739 * Population in 1956: 6,648 * Population in 1951: 4,897 * Population in 1941: 3,220 * Population in 1931: 2,770 * Population in 1921: 2,068 * Population in 1911: 1,737 * Population in 1901: 1,248 * Population in 1891: 783

Education

Roberval has two

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s: Notre-Dame et Benoît-Duhamel and a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

la Cité Étudiante. There are also two centres for adult training: Ste-Ursules et le Centre de formation professionnelle (CFP).

The Ursulines

Founded in 1882 by Sister Saint-Raphaël, the Ursuline convent was the first domestic sciences school in Canada. There was also an agricultural school. Fires in 1897 and 1919 led to rebuilding and improvement of facilities. Following a fire in 2005, a portion of the convent was replaced by the Jardin des Ursulines, a craft vendors market. In 2011, after 129 years of service to the community, the Ursuline community left Roberval.

References

External links

*
Ville de Roberval

La Traversée du lac St-Jean
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Populated places established in 1855 1855 establishments in Canada