Laval, Quebec

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City of Laval, Quebec, Canada
(Ville de Laval, Québec, Canada)
Official flag of City of Laval, Quebec, Canada
Flag		 Official seal of City of Laval, Quebec, Canada
Seal
Motto: "Unité, progrès, grandeur"  (French)
"Unity, Progress, Greatness"
City of Laval
City of Laval
Coordinates: 45.57° N 73.75° W
Country Canada
Province Quebec
Founded
Established 1965[citation needed]
Government
 - City Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt (since 1989)
Area
 - City 247.09 km²  (95.4 sq mi)
Elevation 91 m (299 ft)
Population (2006)
 - City 368,709 (Ranked 14th)
 - Density 1,492.2/km² (3,864.8/sq mi)
  Metro population est. 2006
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code span Metropolitan Montreal 122 FSAs H7A to H7Y
Area code = 450
Website: www.ville.laval.qc.ca

Laval (pronounced Image:ltspkr.png læˈvæl) is a city, a regional county municipality and a region in southwestern Quebec, Canada in the Greater Montreal Area. It is located on Île Jésus, across the Rivière des Prairies from Montreal. It also includes the Îles Laval in the Rivière des Prairies. In 2006, the city had a population of 368,709 [1] Laval constitutes one of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec; its number is 13.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The island is still rural in nature, with most of the urban area in the central region and along the south and west river banks.

Laval is bounded on the south and east by Montreal, on the north by MRC des Moulins and on the west by MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville and MRC de Deux-Montagnes.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Highways

The Metropolitan Community of Montreal
The Metropolitan Community of Montreal

[edit] Provincial routes

On June 18, 2000, During renovations to the Souvenir Boulevard overpass over Highway 15, the southern section collapsed onto the highway, causing the death of one person.[2][3].On September 30, 2006, the Concorde overpass surpassing Autoroute 19 suddenly collapsed killing five people.[4] See also : Montreal overpass collapse

[edit] Public Transit

[edit] Commuter Railway and Subway

The AMT operates two commuter train lines on the island. The Deux-Montagnes and Blainville-Saint-Jerome lines connect Laval to downtown Montreal in as little as 30 minutes. There are currently five train stations and one more will be accessible when the subway is going to be in service, scheduled for Summer of 2007. [5]

Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line Deux-Montagnes Line Line 2 Orange (Montreal Metro)
Sainte-Rose Sainte-Dorothée Montmorency (2007)
Vimont Île-Bigras De la Concorde (2007)
Saint-Martin Cartier (2007)
De la Concorde (2007)

[edit] Buses

See the Société de transport de Laval page for the public transit system.

[edit] Politics

[edit] Federal and Provincial

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This article has been tagged since October 2006.

See also: Canadian federal election results in Northern Montreal and Laval and Quebec general election, 2007

Politically, Laval is a battleground area between the Quebec nationalist parties (the Bloc Québécois federally and the Parti Québécois provincially) and the federalist parties (the Liberal Party of Canada and the Parti libéral du Québec). The only exception is Chomedey in the south, which voted overwhelmingly to not separate in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The other parts of Laval were narrowly split.

[edit] Municipal elections and Mayors

As of 2006, Gilles Vaillancourt is the mayor of the city of Laval. He has been in office since 1989[6]. Vaillancourt's party, the Parti PRO des Lavallois, was born in 1980. Vaillancourt took over as head of the party just before the 1989 municipal elections[7].


Past mayors have been :

[edit] Demographics

Ethnic Origin Population Percent
Canadian 201,725 59.50%
French 90,470 26.68%
Italian 26,630 7.85%
Greek 14,770 4.35%
Irish 11,345 3.34%
Haitian 8,130 2.39%
Lebanese 6,880 2.02%
English 6,190 1.82%
Portuguese 5,925 1.74%

Laval is the 6th largest suburb in North America after Mississauga, Ontario; Long Beach, California; Mesa, Arizona; Virginia Beach, Virginia and Surrey, British Columbia.

In 2001, the population of Laval was an estimated 343,005, a 3.8 percent increase from the earlier census in 1996. Women constitute 51.44% of the total population. Children under 14 years of age total 18.6%, while those of retirement age (65 years of age and older) number 13.2% resulting in a median age of 38.7 years.[1]

In Laval, 15.48% of the population was born outside of Canada, substantially lower than the national average, many immigrants hailing from the French Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Those of indigenous origin constitute 0.22%, while those who are visible minorities (non-white/European) number 8.68%, and are chiefly Black Canadian, Arab, and Hispanic. Comparing to neighbouring Montreal, the linguistics of Laval is more homogenous as 73.42% speak French, 6.05% speak English, 0.84% are bilingual in French and English, and 19.69% speak languages other than Canada's official languages (English and French) such as Greek, Italian, Armenian, Arabic and Portuguese.

As with many parts of Quebec, the city is highly Christian (90.71%), particularly Roman Catholic (81.09%), while Protestant and Orthodox groups constitute the remainder of the population. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and others number less than 5% combined.

[edit] History

Laval was first settled by Jesuits in 1636 when they were granted a seigneury there. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670. In 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales. The first municipalities on the island were created in 1845, after nearly 200 years of a rural nature. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose was incorporated as a village in 1850, and remained as the main community for the remainder of the century. With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Laval's first city in 1912 and was followed by L'Abord-à-Plouffe being granted village status three years later. Laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year based on its tourist-based economy from Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the following years, due to its proximity to Montreal that made it an ideal suburb.

To deal with problems caused by urbanization, amalgamations occurred; L'Abord-à-Plouffe amalgamated with Renaud and Saint-Martin creating the city of Chomedey in 1961. The amalgamation turned out to be so successful for the municipalities involved that the Quebec government decided to amalgamate the whole island into a single city of Laval in 1965. Laval was named after the first owner of Île Jésus, François de Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. At the time, Laval had a population of 170,000. Laval became a Regional County Municipality in 1980. Prior to that, it was the County of Laval.[8]

The 14 municipalities, which existed prior to the incorporation of the amalgamated City of Laval on August 6, 1965, were:

Currently the city is devided in six sectors (secteurs in French) which only approximately cover the territoies of the former municipalities. They are:

  • Sector 1
    • Duvernay
    • Saint-François
    • Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
  • Sector 2
    • Laval-des-Rapides
    • Pont-Viau
    • Renaud
  • Sector 3
    • Chomedey
  • Sector 4
    • Fabreville Ouest
    • Îles Laval
    • Laval-Ouest
    • Laval-sur-le-Lac
    • Sainte-Dorothée
  • Sector 5
    • Fabreville Est
    • Sainte-Rose
  • Sector 6
    • Vimont
    • Auteuil

The former city of Fabreville was devided among two sectors.

[edit] Flag, Seal and Motto

On a white-yellow background, the emblem of Laval illustrates the modernism of a city in full expansion. The sign of the city symbolizes the "L" of Laval.

The colors also have a significant meaning :

  • Dark red represents usually the affluence and represents here the great economic potential of Laval.
  • Blue symbolizes the quality of life and the installation of a human city.

The "L" of Laval is made of cubes that represent the development of Laval.

The letters of the Laval signature are related one to the other to point out the fusion of the 14 municipalities of the Jesus island.

The logo (that is on the flag) has existed since the 1980s and the flag since the 1990s.[9]

[edit] Sister cities

Laval is twinned with three cities[10] :

Laval also maintains ten economic and cultural cooperation agreements with Markham, Ontario (Canada), Ribeira Grande (The Azores), Grenoble (France), Mudanjiang (China) and Pedro Aguirre Cerda (Chile).

[edit] Business and Economy

Laval has an economy especially centered on the sectors of high technologies and services. It has many pharmaceutical laboratories but also careers of ores and a persistent agricultural sector. Regarded a long time as a dormitory town, it is not longer the case today because the city knew to diversify its economy, in particular towards the trade. This is why Laval counts a great number of malls, warehouses and various stores.

These are the main industrial parks in different boroughs of Laval [11] :

[edit] Industrial Park Centre

One of the largest municipal industrial parks in Quebec, the Industrial Park Centre is located in the heart of Laval (corner of St. Martin West and Blvd. Industriel) and boasts the highest concentration of manufacturing companies in Laval; 1,024 at last count, and 22,378 employees. The park still has 1,300,643 square meters of space available.

[edit] Highway 25 Industrial Park

Inaugurated in 2001, this new industrial municipal space has been a tremendous success, boasting an 80% occupancy rate. Easy to access, the Highway 25 Industrial Park is at the crossroads of the metropolitan road network. Laval is studying the possibility of expanding this park in the next few years.

[edit] Industrial Park East

This park has reached full maturity with a 100% occupancy rate. Located in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, the Industrial Park East is currently part of a municipal program to revitalize municipal services and public utilities. Laval is working with a private developer on an expansion project for the park that should be announced in the near future.

[edit] Laval Science and High Technology Park

Laval Science and High Technology Park; an internationally renowned science campus that houses the Biotech City and the Information Technology Development Center (ITDC), the Laval Science and High Technology Park is a beacon of the metropolitan economy, located in an environment befitting the best technopolises in the world. Nearly 500,000 square meters of space are available for development. Located along Rivière des Prairies and Highway 15, the Biotech City spans the entire territory of the Laval Science and High Technology Park and is a unique concept in Canada in that its residents comprise both universities and companies.


[edit] Tourism

Laval's main attractions are:

Source: Tourisme Laval [12]

[edit] Education

Laval is home to a variety of vocational/technical centers, colleges and universities, including:

  • College Montmorency
  • CDI College
  • Centre de formation Compétences-2000
  • Centre de formation en métallurgie de Laval
  • Chomedey Centre
  • Centre de formation horticole de Laval
  • Centre de formation Paul-Émile-Dufresne

[edit] Sport

[edit] Sports teams

Club Sport League Stadium/Arena
Regents Ice Hockey Midget AAA Colisée de Laval
Les Comètes Women’s soccer W-League Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard
Les Associés Baseball Ligue de Baseball Élite du Québec Montmorency Park

See also: Le réseau des sports for detailed coverage.

Laval was also host-city of the "Jeux du Québec" held in summer 1991.

[edit] Famous natives and residents

[edit] Regional media outlets

[edit] Radio stations

[edit] Newspapers

[edit] Television networks

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada website. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
  2. ^ Overpass dismantled, highway re-opened. CBC News website. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
  3. ^ Overpass collapse shuts down Quebec highway. CBC News website. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  4. ^ Overpass Collapses Near Montreal; People Trapped Feared Dead. Fox News Website. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  5. ^ Agence métropolitaine de transport (in French only). AMT website. Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
  6. ^ Pro Vaillancourt : The leader. Parti Pro website. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  7. ^ Laval's Vaillancourt cruising toward win. Montreal Gazette website. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  8. ^ History and Heritage. Laval portal website. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  9. ^ Flags of the World. Flags of the World website. Retrieved on July 16, 2005.
  10. ^ Jumelage Laval-France / Laval-Québec Vingt ans… déjà!. City of Laval website (French). Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  11. ^ Laval Technopole website. Laval Technopole website. Retrieved on March 2nd, 2007.
  12. ^ Tourisme Laval. Tourisme Laval website. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
Bois-des-Filion, Terrebonne
Rosemère, Boisbriand, Saint-Eustache

North
West  Laval  East
South

 Montreal
Montreal


Communities in Laval

Auteuil | Chomedey | Duvernay | Fabreville | Îles-Laval | Laval-des-Rapides | Laval-Ouest | Laval-sur-le-Lac | Pont-Viau | Sainte-Dorothée | Sainte-Rose | Saint-François | Saint-Vincent-de-Paul | Vimont
v • d • e
Subdivisions of Quebec
Regions Abitibi-Témiscamingue · Bas-Saint-Laurent · Capitale-Nationale · Centre-du-Québec · Chaudière-Appalaches · Côte-Nord · Estrie · Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine · Lanaudière · Laurentides · Laval · Mauricie · Montérégie · Montréal · Nord-du-Québec · Outaouais · Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean
Territories Basse-Côte-Nord · Jamésie · Kativik · Nunavik
Separated cities Gatineau · Lévis · Notre-Dame-des-Anges · Rouyn-Noranda · Saguenay · Saint-Augustin · Shawinigan · Sherbrooke · Trois-Rivières
Agglomeration areas La Tuque · Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine · Longueuil · Montreal · Quebec City
List of regional county municipalities • List of communities • Subdivisions of: BC · AB · SK · MB · ON · NB · NS · PEI · NL · YU · NT · NU
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