| Saint-Laurent | |
|---|---|
| — Borough of Montreal — | |
| Saint-Laurent borough hall. | |
| Location of Saint-Laurent on the Island of Montreal. (Grey areas indicate demerged municipalities). |
|
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Quebec |
| Region | Montréal |
| Established | January 01, 2002 |
| Electoral Districts Federal |
Saint-Laurent—Cartierville |
| Provincial | Saint-Laurent Acadie |
| Government[1][2][3] | |
| • Type | Borough |
| • Mayor | Alan DeSousa (UM) |
| • Federal MP(s) | Stéphane Dion (LIB) |
| • Quebec MNA(s) | Jean-Marc Fournier (PLQ) Christine St-Pierre (PLQ) |
| Area[4] | |
| • Land | 42.88 km2 (16.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2006)[4] | |
| • Total | 84,833 |
| • Density | 1,978.6/km2 (5,124.6/sq mi) |
| • Change (2001-06) | 9.6% |
| • Dwellings | 35,287 |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Area code(s) | (514) and (438) |
| Access Routes[5] A-13 A-15 |
A-40 A-520 |
| Website | saintlaurent.ville.montreal.qc.ca |
Saint-Laurent is a former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is now the largest in area of the boroughs (arrondissements) of the city of Montreal.
Saint-Laurent contains two CEGEPs in proximity, one English (Vanier College) and one French (Cégep de Saint-Laurent), showing the history of Saint-Laurent as a college town. A widely noted art museum, the Saint-Laurent Museum of Art, is located on the campus of Cégep de Saint-Laurent, along with a bowling alley and an indoor college hockey rink. With both French and English colleges, it also shows the ethnic diversity of the borough, with sizable French, English, Jewish, Romanian, South-Asian, East-Asian, Lebanese, Italian, and Greek communities.
Saint-Laurent is home to some of Montreal's best fast food: Coronet Pizza was voted to have the best pizza by CJAD Radio; and Decarie Hot Dog, a diner on Decarie Boulevard, was voted to have the best hot dogs in Montreal by the Gazette in the 1980s, and is still highly touted. [1]
Saint-Laurent has three fire stations and two police stations, one municipal court building, one library, the former City Hall (now the borough headquarters), and two indoor hockey arenas (the municipal Raymond Bourque Arena, named after the legendary NHL player, a Hockey Hall of Fame member; and the commercial Bonaventure's Arena whose rinks can be hired out, among other things, for private league play.)
Contents |
Saint-Laurent is divided into two districts, Norman-McLaren and Côte-de-Liesse. The Norman-McLaren district is named for Norman McLaren, a cinema pioneer at the National Film Board of Canada, whose headquarters are located in the borough district.
As of the November 1, 2009 Montreal municipal election, the current borough council consists of the following councillors:
| District | Position | Name | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Borough mayor City councillor |
Alan DeSousa | Union Montréal | |
| Côte-de-Liesse | City councillor | Francesco Miele, elected at the by-election held on November 21, 2010, after the death of Laval Demers, on September 17, 2010.[2] | ||
| Borough councillor | Maurice Cohen | Union Montréal | ||
| Norman-McLaren | City councillor | Aref Salem | Union Montréal | |
| Borough councillor | Michèle Biron | Union Montréal | ||
Neighbourhoods within this borough include Bois-Franc.
Saint-Laurent was founded as the Parish of Saint-Laurent in 1720.
Norgate shopping centre, the earliest shopping center in Canada, a strip mall, was built in Saint-Laurent in 1949, and is still operational.
Saint-Laurent is one of Montreal's, and Canada's, most ethnically mixed areas, with some 166 ethnicities said to live there in relative harmony. [3]
| Ethnicity | Population | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian | 16,685 | 21.78% |
| French | 9,570 | 12.49% |
| Lebanese | 7,875 | 10.28% |
| Jewish | 6,765 | 8.83% |
| Chinese | 5,460 | 7.13% |
| Greek | 4,265 | 5.57% |
| Italian | 3,285 | 4.29% |
| English | 2,800 | 3.66% |
| Irish | 2,375 | 3.1% |
| East Indian | 2,265 | 2.96% |
| Language | Population | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| French | 30,210 | 36.02% |
| English | 23,110 | 27.55% |
| Both English and French | 1,925 | 2.30% |
| Other languages | 28,620 | 34.12% |
Linguistic trend
| Language | 1996 | 2001 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | 23,715 | 24,520 | 24,280 |
| English | 13,550 | 12,805 | 13,290 |
| English and French | 1,540 | 1,030 | 710 |
| Other languages | 35,445 | 38,255 | 45,590 |
| Population | 74,240 | 77,391 | 84,833 |
Saint-Laurent is the second-largest employment hub within the metropolitan region, after downtown Montréal. [4]
Air Canada Centre,[6] also known as La Rondelle ("The Puck" in French), is Air Canada's headquarters,[7] located on the grounds of Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and in Saint-Laurent.[8][9] In 1990 the airline announced that it was moving its headquarters from Downtown Montreal to the airport to cut costs.[10]
In addition Air Transat's headquarters and a regional office of Air Canada Jazz are in Saint-Laurent and on the grounds of Trudeau Airport.[11][12] Before its dissolution Jetsgo was headquartered in Saint-Laurent.[13]
Bombardier Aerospace has the Amphibious Aircraft Division in Saint-Laurent.[14]
Saint-Laurent has many transportation links, with one municipal bus terminal (Terminus Côte-Vertu), two Montreal Metro stations (du Collège, Côte-Vertu), three commuter train stations (Bois-Franc, du Ruisseau and Montpellier), four autoroutes (Autoroute 15 (Decarie Expressway and Laurentian Autoroute), Autoroute 40 - Metropolitan Boulevard/Transcanada Highway, Autoroute 520, and Autoroute 13), and a secondary highway (Route 117), in addition to major urban boulevards (Marcel-Laurin Boulevard, Henri Bourassa Boulevard, Cavendish Boulevard, De la Côte-Vertu Road, Decarie Boulevard, Thimens Boulevard). The former Cartierville Airport is no more, having been turned into a residential subdivision called Bois-Franc.
Part of Trudeau International Airport also lies within the territory of Saint-Laurent.[15][8]
The City of Saint-Laurent or Ville Saint-Laurent was one of the economic engines of Metropolitan Montreal, and forcibly merged into the City of Montreal on January 1, 2002 by the Parti Québécois government. On June 20, 2004, the demerger forces lost a referendum on the issue of recreating Saint-Laurent as a city. While 75% of the turnout voted to demerge, only 28.5% of the total eligible voting population voted to demerge, falling short of the requisite 35% as set by the province.
| Pierrefonds-Roxboro (Montreal) | Ahuntsic-Cartierville (Montreal) | |||
| Dollard-des-Ormeaux | Mount Royal | |||
| Saint-Laurent (Montreal) | ||||
| Dorval | Lachine (Montreal) | Côte Saint-Luc |
