Cumberland, Ontario

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For the village with the same name located within this former township, see Cumberland, Ottawa. For other uses, see Cumberland, Ontario (disambiguation).

Cumberland, Ontario was a township in eastern Ontario, Canada that existed from 1800 to 1999, when it was incorporated as the City of Cumberland. It ceased to be a separate municipality in 2001, when it was amalgamated into the city of Ottawa.

[edit] History

Cumberland was originally incorporated as a township in 1800 as part of Russell County. It took its name from Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland. When an upper-tier Regional level of government was created in 1969 to replace neighbouring Carleton County, the township was removed from Russell County and incorporated into the new Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton.

The township comprised the eastern portion of the suburban Orléans area, and the communities of Cumberland (a village with the same name as the township), Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Sarsfield, Vars, Carlsbad Springs and Navan.

Almost two-hundred years after it was first incorporated, Cumberland became a city in 1999. City-status was short-lived, however, as the municipality was amalgamated with Ottawa and all the other constituent municipalities of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton to form a new City of Ottawa in 2001.

According to the Canada 2001 Census, Cumberland had a population of 52,430.

[edit] Current status

Cumberland now forms part of Ottawa. The largest portion of the former municipality now forms Cumberland Ward, and is represented at Ottawa City Council. Most of the suburban neighbourhood of Orléans, which straddled the former boundary between Cumberland and the city of Gloucester, has been split off from Cumberland and Gloucester and is now joined in Orléans and Innes Wards. Thus, Cumberland Ward is now primarily rural in nature, made up of historic villages that now comprise bedroom communities of Ottawa.

Data from the Canada 2006 Census indicates that the population of the former Cumberland, based on its former pre-2001 boundaries, has increased to 62,694.