Shawinigan

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Shawinigan
Aerial view of Shawinigan
Aerial view of Shawinigan
Shawinigan flag
flag
Motto : Age quod agis
Location in Quebec
Shawinigan (Quebec)
Shawinigan
Shawinigan
State : CanadaCanada Canada
Province : Quebec
Administrative region : Mauricie
Coordinates : 46 ° 33 ′  N , 72 ° 45 ′  W Coordinates: 46 ° 33 ′  N , 72 ° 45 ′  W
Height : 123  m
Area : 733.48 km²
Residents : 50,060 (as of 2011)
Population density : 68.2 inhabitants / km²
Time zone : Eastern Time ( UTC − 5 )
Municipality number: 36033
Postal code : G9N-G9T
Area code : +1 819
Mayor : Michel Angers
Website : www.shawinigan.ca

Shawinigan is a city in the south of the Canadian province of Quebec . It is located about 155 km northeast of Montreal and 150 kilometers west of the provincial capital Québec . The city in the administrative region of Mauricie is a so-called territorial equivalent of a regional municipality, after several municipalities of the former regional county municipality (municipalité régionale du comté) Le Center-de-la-Mauricie merged with Shawinigan in 2002 . The area is 733.48 km², the population 50,060 (2011).

geography

Shawinigan is located on the Rivière Saint-Maurice , at the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowland to the south and the Canadian Shield in the north. There are several islands in the river, including Île des Piles, Île des Hêtres, Île Anselme-Fay, Île Marchesseault, Île Frigon and Île Melville. The earlier waterfalls have given way to power stations. The predominantly forested terrain is largely flat and swampy in places to the east of the river, and slightly wavy to hilly to the west of the river. There are dozens of smaller lakes in the city. The La Mauricie National Park begins 15 km north of the city center . Another important protected area is the Réserve écologique de Lac-à-la-Tortue .

The city consists of several settlements. Seven kilometers northeast of the core town of Shawinigan, also on the right bank of the Saint-Maurice, is Grand-Mère , eight kilometers northwest of Saint-Gérard-des-Laurentides . Across from Shawinigan is Shawinigan-Sud (formerly called Almaville), across from Grand-Mère is Saint-Georges . Seen from Grand-Mère, Saint-Jean-des-Piles is nine kilometers to the north, while Lac-à-la-Tortue is two kilometers east of Saint-Georges on the lake of the same name.

Neighboring municipalities are Lac-Normand and Trois-Rives in the north, Saint-Roch-de-Mékinac and Grandes-Piles in the northeast, Hérouxville and Saint-Narcisse in the east, Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel in the southeast, Saint-Étienne- des-Grès in the south, Saint-Boniface in the south-west, Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc in the west and Saint-Alexis-des-Monts in the north-west.

history

In March 1651, the Jesuit Jacques Buteux led an expedition in the Saint-Maurice Valley to convert the Abenaki who lived here . He was the first European to describe the region's waterfalls. During a second expedition he was killed in an Iroquois raid the following year . The name Shawinigan comes from the Abenaki language and describes a portage on the slope of a hill. Earlier spellings are Oshaouinigane, Assaouinigane, Chawinigame, Shawenigane, Chaouénigane and Achawénégan. The first settlers settled in around 1850 and began rafting . The first road was built in 1856 to bypass the falls.

Hydroelectric power station and aluminum smelter (1910)
Pont de Grand-Mere

At the end of the 1890s, the province of Québec experienced a second phase of industrialization . Numerous factories processed the abundant natural resources and required enormous amounts of electrical energy for this purpose. In 1898, the Shawinigan Water and Power Company (SW&P), which owned the water usage rights of the Rivière Saint-Maurice, began building the first hydroelectric power station . In 1899, SW&P commissioned the Montreal engineering firm Pringle to plan a settlement next to the emerging power station. In the same year it was connected to the railway network. In 1901, the Shawinigan Falls community was officially founded, and a year later it received city status. The production of aluminum also began in 1901 , when the Pittsburgh Reduction Company (now Alcoa ) opened the first plant of its kind on Canadian soil.

Within a few years Shawinigan Falls developed into a major industrial site. The paper , chemical and textile industries created thousands of jobs. In 1908 silicon carbide was produced here in Canada for the first time, and cellophane pellets for the first time in 1932 . The Pont de Grand-Mère over the Rivière Saint-Maurice, opened in 1929, was the longest suspension bridge in Canada and the world's longest suspension bridge with suspension cables made of wire ropes. The city ​​was hit hard by the global economic crisis , as numerous factories had to temporarily reduce or even suspend production. Provincial and city authorities responded with job creation measures . The Second World War brought a revival. A decade-long phase of decline began in the 1950s. Technological developments made industry less dependent on proximity to power plants, which is why many companies preferred to move their factories to larger cities or to close them altogether.

The city shortened its name to Shawinigan in 1958. At the turn of the millennium there were several parish mergers. In 1998 the Baie-de-Shawinigan parish merged with the city. In 2002, as part of an administrative reform, the regional county municipality of Le Center-de-la-Mauricie was dissolved. More than half of the parishes in it merged with Shawinigan. These were Grand-Mère , Shawinigan-Sud , Saint-Georges , Lac-à-la-Tortue , Saint-Gérard-des-Laurentides and Saint-Jean-des-Piles . The population of Shawinigans increased threefold.

population

According to the 2011 census, Shawinigan had 50,060 inhabitants, which corresponds to a population density of 68.2 inh / km². 98.0% of the population stated French as their main language, the share of English was 0.9%. 0.4% said they were bilingual (French and English), other languages ​​and multiple answers accounted for 0.7%. Only French spoke 78.3%. In 2001, 96.1% of the population were Roman Catholic , 0.8% Protestant and 2.4% non-denominational.

Economy and Transport

Lookout tower in the Cité de l'Énergie theme park

The once important industry has largely given way to the service sector. Alcan has been operating the aluminum smelter that was founded forty years earlier since 1941 ; however, production is slated to stop at the end of 2014. A Resolute Forest Products plant remains from what used to be a large number of paper mills . The state energy supplier Hydro-Québec operates four hydropower plants on the Rivière Saint-Maurice; these are the plants Shawinigan-2 (opened in 1911), Shawinigan-3 (1948), Grand-Mère (1915) and Rocher-de-Grand-Mère (2004). The city is making efforts to establish itself as a tourist destination. The main attractions are the nearby national park and the electricity theme park Cité de l'Énergie .

Autoroute 55 runs along the western outskirts of Shawinigan and Grand-Mère ; this motorway ends a little north of the Saint-Georges district. The most important national main road is Route 153 . From this branch route 155 to La Tuque and route 157 to Trois-Rivières . The railway lines leading through Shawinigan are mainly used for freight traffic; VIA-Rail express trains run three times a week to Montreal and Jonquière / Senneterre . Otherwise, the city can be reached by long-distance bus lines . The city bus network comprises three lines.

Sports

The ice hockey team Cataractes de Shawinigan in the Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec is a sporting figurehead . The home games are played in the Center Bionest de Shawinigan , which has a capacity of 4,300; the Memorial Cup 2012 also took place there.

Twin town

Since 1958 there is a city ​​partnership with Hamilton in the province of Ontario .

Personalities

photos

  • Shawinigan Railway Station

  • Shawinigan-2 power plant

  • Grand-Mère power station

  • Saint-Paul church in Grand-Mère

  • Notre-Dame de la Présantation church

  • town hall

Web links

Commons : Shawinigan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Histoire. Shawinigan City, accessed February 5, 2014 (French).
  2. ↑ a b Shawinigan. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed February 5, 2014 (French).
  3. ↑ Shawinigan Parish Population Profile. In: 2011 Census. Statistics Canada , 2011, accessed January 4, 2014 (French).
  4. ↑ Shawinigan Parish Population Profile. In: 2001 Census. Statistics Canada , 2001, accessed February 5, 2014 (French).
  5. ↑ Rio Tinto Alcan amorce la fermeture de son usine de Shawinigan. Radio Canada, August 7, 2013, accessed February 5, 2014 (French).
  6. ↑ Shawinigan, Quebec Canada. In: Hamilton's twin cities. mundialization.ca, accessed February 5, 2014 .