Saint-Jérôme, Quebec

Saint-Jérôme
—  Ville  —

Coat of arms
Saint-Jérôme
Location in Quebec, Canada
Coordinates:
Country  Canada
Province  Quebec
Region Laurentides
Regional County La Rivière-du-Nord
Settled 1834[1]
Constituted January 1, 2002[1]
Government
 • Type Ville
 • Mayor Marc Gascon
 • MNA Gilles Robert
 • MP Pierre Dionne Labelle
Area[2]
 • Land 90.50 km2 (34.9 sq mi)
Population (2006)[2]
 • Total 63,729 (ranked 15th)
 • Density 704.2/km2 (1,823.9/sq mi)
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Postal codes J5L, J7Y, J7Z
Area code(s) 450, 579
Website www.vsj.ca

Saint-Jérôme (2006 Population 63,729) is a town in Quebec, Canada, near Mirabel, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Montreal along Autoroute des Laurentides. The town is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts.

The town is named after Saint Jerome (ca. 347 – September 30, 420), a church father best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. His translation is known as the Vulgate.

Contents

History

The territory where the present city of Saint-Jérôme now stands was granted in 1752 by the marquis de la Jonquière, governor of New France, as the seignory of Augmentation des Mille-Iles (literally "enlargement" of the seignory of Mille-Iles). From the 1760s to the 1840s, the seignory was owned by the Dumont and Lefebvre de Bellefeuille families, living in the town of Saint-Eustache, 25 kilometers (16 mi) to the south. The Dumont and the Lefebvre conceded the farmland to colonists coming mostly from the region lying north of Montreal. The emerging town was then known under the name of Dumontville. The Catholic parish of Saint-Jérôme was constituted on November 15, 1834 and the village itself was constituted on July 1, 1845 by governor Metcalfe.[3]

François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle, a Roman Catholic priest who was the great "colonizer" (promoter of settlement) of the North of Montreal, was in charge of the pastoral administration of Saint-Jérôme of 1868 until his death, in 1891. Eight years after his arrival, he had a railroad built linking Saint-Jérôme and Montreal.

Antoine Labelle was the parish priest of Saint-Jérôme for 22 years, from 1868 until his death, at 57 years of age, on January 4, 1891. He was called "the king of North, the apostle of colonization".

The opening of roads and the arrival of a railroad became essential with the development of the small communities in the Laurentians. These transportation routes for the movement of goods and people would ensure the establishment of trade and industry.

Labelle promoted the idea of a railroad towards the North beginning in 1869. The railway reached Saint-Jérôme in 1876, partly because a railway was seen as a way to meet the needs for firewood and construction materials for urban centres like Montreal and Quebec.

In 2002 Saint-Jérôme amalgamated with the municipalities of Bellefeuille (2001 census population 14,066), Saint-Antoine (2001 population 11,488) and Lafontaine (2001 population 9,477).

Saint-Jérôme is the seat of the judicial district of Terrebonne.[4]

Public transportation

Saint-Jérôme is served by the Saint-Jérôme [intermodal commuter rail station on the Agence métropolitaine de transport's Blainville–Saint-Jérôme Line. Commuter trains to Montreal began to serve the station in January 2007, with four trains in each direction each business day.[5] The station is also served by bus routes operated by local transit agency, CIT Laurentides, and the neighbouring transit agency CRT Lanaudière as well as three private intercity bus companies.

Industry

Uniroyal, Dominion Rubber

Health

CSSS of St-Jerome, Hospital Centre

The Health centre and the social services (CSSS) of Saint-Jerome gathers three missions, that is to say the regional Hospital of Saint-Jerome, the CLSC and the lodging houses.
From its regional vocation, it radiates in all the area of Laurentides. The CSSS of Saint-Jerome has a whole history behind him since the construction of the hospital in 1949 and its opening the following year.

And a history they are not only facts. They are also people who believed in a project, which showed conviction and which knew to adapt to the contexts economic and sociodemographic in which they evolved/moved.

The raison d'être first of the establishment however did not change: to offer care and high quality services to the population. The CSSS of Saint-Jerome obtained in April 2007 the accreditation of establishment approved by Agrément Canada. This distinction confirms the constant efforts of all the organization in order to reach standards of quality of care and services offered in full safety to the users.

Education

Saint-Jérôme is home to the Cégep de Saint-Jérôme, one of the Colleges of General and Vocational Education located in the province. It is also home to a new Saint-Jérôme branch campus of the Université du Québec en Outaouais.

Attractions

Notable people

Twin towns

Lisieux, France - since May 2010?

Demographics

Population:[7]

The 2006 census found that 95.6% of residents spoke French as their mother tongue.

The next most common languages were English (1.4%) and Spanish (1.0%).[8]

Mother Tongue Population Percentage
French 59,795 95.58%
English 855 1.37%
English and French 315 0.50%
French and a non-official language 45 0.07%
English and a non-official language 25 0.04%
Spanish 630 1.01%
Italian 205 0.33%
Greek 135 0.22%
Chinese 90 0.14%
Serbo-Croatian 65 0.10%


See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b Histoire de Saint-Jérôme
  2. ^ a b Statistics Canada 2006 Census
  3. ^ Auclair, Elie-J., Saint-Jérôme de Terrebonne, Imprimerie J.H.A. Labelle, 1934, pages 13-35.
  4. ^ Territorial Division Act. Revised Statutes of Quebec D-11.
  5. ^ La Presse, 28 novembre 2006 "Saint-Jérôme aura son train de banlieue" par Jean-Paul Charbonneau
  6. ^ Government of Quebec – Parc Linéaire Le P'tit Train du Nord
  7. ^ Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006 census
  8. ^ "Saint-Jérôme, V". Detailed Mother Tongue (103), Knowledge of Official Languages (5), Age Groups (17A) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada. 2007-11-20. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=0&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=1&IPS=&METH=0&ORDER=1&PID=89202&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=No&StartRow=1&SUB=701&Temporal=2006&Theme=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&GID=773126. Retrieved 2008-08-02.