Val-d'Or ( , , ; meaning "Golden Valley" or "Valley of Gold") is a
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
in
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 32,752 inhabitants according to the
2021 Canadian 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 ...
. The city is located in the
Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Abitibi-Témiscamingue () is an administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of and its population was 147,082 people as of the 2021 cens ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
near
La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve.
The
Algonquin toponym of the town is ''Ozawaconia Odena''.
History
Gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
was discovered in the area in 1923. The name of the town is French for "Valley of Gold." While gold is still mined in the area today, base metals, such as
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
(Cu),
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...
(Zn), and
lead
Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
(Pb) have become increasingly important resources. The ore is usually found in volcanic rocks that were deposited on the sea floor over 2.7 billion years ago. They are referred to as volcanic-hosted (or
volcanogenic) massive sulphide deposits (
VMS).
The city is known for its vast parks, cycle tracks, and forests. Some other attractions include the
City of Gold and the mining village of
Bourlamaque, which were officially proclaimed historic sites in 1979.
The city hosted the
Quebec Games in 1987. The local hockey team, the
Val-d'Or Foreurs, have played in the
QMJHL since 1993, winning the league championship in 1998, 2001 and 2014 to claim a spot in the
Memorial Cup
The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a consortium of three Junior ice hockey, major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tou ...
. They play at
Centre Air Creebec. The Foreurs' mascot is called Dynamit, named after
dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...
which was extensively used by the mining industry of Val-d'Or.
Val-d'Or was once home to
CFS Val-d'Or, a
Canadian Forces Station.
In the
municipal reorganizations of January 1, 2002, Val-d'Or was merged with the neighbouring municipalities of Dubuisson, Sullivan, Val-Senneville and Vassan.
[
The ]Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to:
* CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
*Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network
*Ici Radio-Canada Première
Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...
investigative television program, Enquête, revealed in October 2015 numerous allegations of assault and sexual abuse of local aboriginal women by members of the provincial police, the Sûreté du Québec
The (SQ; , ) is the State police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. There is no official English name, though the agency's name is sometimes translated as Quebec Provincial Police ...
. The news propelled the town into the national spotlight, causing Québec's Public Safety Minister, Lise Thériault, to suspend the officers and launch an independent investigation led by the Montréal police force.
Geography
Val-d'Or is situated on the Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...
at an elevation of 1100 feet (330m) above sea level. Although its name refers to a valley ("Val"), the city is actually situated on a vast, slightly undulating plain.
Val-d'Or is at the heart of a vast hydrographic network which includes to the north Lake Blouin, the head water of the Harricana River and to the south Baie Carrière, a reservoir which feeds 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 ...
.
Climate
Val-d'Or has a 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 Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
''Dfb''), closely bordering on a subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
(''Dfc'') with warm, humid summers and severely cold winters. Winters are snowy with a January mean of . There are 18.4 days where the temperature will fall below although with the wind chill factored in, it can occasionally drop below . Snowfall totals are heavy, averaging with reliable snow cover from November to April. Summers are warm with a July daily high of though highs reach above an average of 4.3 days per year. Val-d'Or receives
of precipitation per year which is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, though precipitation is heaviest during the warmest months. Val-d'Or receives 1853 hours of sunshine per or about 39.5 of possible daylight hours, ranging from a low of 19.2% in November to a high of 52.9% in July.
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 ...
, Val-d'Or 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.
Mother Tongue (2021):
* English: 2.6%
* French: 93.3%
* English and French: 1.1%
* Other only: 2.4%
Economy
Air Creebec, a regional airline, has its headquarters in Val-d'Or and the Val-d'Or Airport serves as its hub.
Val-d'Or's proximity to the Abitibi gold belt has made it a large gold producer, being part of a region that produced 45 million ounces of gold since the 1930s.
In 2012, Quebec Lithium Corp. re-opened a lithium
Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
mine which had operated as an underground mine from 1955–65, planning to carve an open pit mine over pegmatite
A pegmatite is an igneous rock showing a very coarse texture, with large interlocking crystals usually greater in size than and sometimes greater than . Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica, having a similar silicic c ...
dikes. the mine is about north of Val d'Or, southeast of Amos
Amos or AMOS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Amos'' (album), an album by Michael Ray
* Amos (band), an American Christian rock band
* ''Amos'' (film), a 1985 American made-for-television drama film
* Amos (guitar), a 1958 Gibson Fl ...
, and km west of Barraute. Access to the mine is via paved road from Val d'Or.
A Canadian National line passes through the community. The Val-d'Or station formerly served Canadian National and 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 ...
passenger trains.
Transit and paratransit services within Val-d'Or are provided by a contractor. Intercity bus service from and to Val-d'Or is provided by .
Government
City council (as of 2022):
* Mayor: Céline Brindamour
* Councillors: Maxime Gagné, Benjamin Turcotte, Èveline Laverdière, Martin Lavoie, Jean St-Jules, Sylvie Hébert, Lisyane Morin, Yvon Rodrigue
List of former mayors since 2002 amalgamation:
* Fernand Trahan (2002–2013)
* Pierre Corbeil (2013–2021)
* Céline Brindamour (2021–present)
Education
The Centre de services scolaire de l'Or-et-des-Bois operates French-language public schools, while the Western Quebec School Board operates English-language public schools.
The city also hosts campuses of Cégep de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue and of UQAT.
Media
Almost all media in Val-d'Or and the nearby city of Rouyn-Noranda
Rouyn-Noranda (; Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada.
The city of Rouyn-Noranda is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipalit ...
serves both cities. Although the cities are far enough apart that radio and television stations in the area serve the cities from separate transmitters, almost every broadcast station in either city has a rebroadcaster in the other city. The only nominal exceptions are the cities' separate Énergie stations, although at present even these stations share the majority of their broadcast schedule.
Notable people
* Yolette Lévy (1938–2018), Haitian-born Canadian politician and activist
* Serge Aubin, hockey player
* Dany Bédar, musician and singer
* Pierre Brassard, actor and comedian
* Lucien Cliche, politician
* Boom Desjardins, singer
* Raôul Duguay, singer and poet
* Sophie Dupuis
Sophie Dupuis is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Val-d'Or, Quebec, who studied at Concordia University and the Université du Québec à Montréal whose feature film debut ''Family First (film), Family First (Chien de garde)'' premie ...
, director
* Robin L'Houmeau, actor
* Anthony Mantha, hockey player
* Dany Sabourin, hockey player
* Diane Tell, singer
* Pierre Yergeau, writer
See also
* Parc Roland-Veillet, a public park
*List of towns in Quebec
This is the list of municipalities that have the Classification of municipalities in Quebec, Quebec municipality type of city (Quebec), city (''ville'', code=V), an Administrative divisions of Quebec, administrative division defined by the Minist ...
References
External links
Municipal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Val-D'or
Cities and towns in Quebec