Beloeil, Quebec
Encyclopedia
Belœil (bɛlœj) is a city
in southwestern Quebec
, Canada
on the Richelieu River
, 32 kilometres (19.9 mi) east of Montreal
. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census
was 18,927. It is part of the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu
, within the Administrative Region of Montérégie
. It occupies the west shore of the Richelieu River
in front of the Mont Saint-Hilaire
. Along with the municipality of McMasterville
to the immediate south of Belœil, and the cities of Mont-Saint-Hilaire
and Otterburn Park
on the eastern bank of the Richelieu, Belœil forms an unbroken urban agglomeration of over 40,000 inhabitants, which is part of Greater Montreal.
Belœil was created as a village in 1903 and became a ville
(city) in 1914, but can trace its history through the parish
of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil, established in 1772, and the seigneurie
de Belœil, founded in 1694. Its name probably derives from the old French
expression "Quel bel œil!", meaning "What a beautiful view!", generally attributed to Jean-Baptiste Hertel, brother of the first seigneur (lord) of Belœil, Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière
.
presence along the Richelieu River, none of it has been found on the territory of Belœil. Development of the region in the first several decades after the arrival of Europeans in the region was slow, owing to the geographic situation of the Richelieu, which made it a primary avenue of attack from New York
toward New France
.
The recorded history of Belœil began on 18 January 1694 when Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac
granted Joseph Hertel a seigneurie along the shores of the Richelieu River, which Hertel called the Seigneurie de Belœil. Hertel, unwilling to abandon his military activities, such as the 1704 Raid on Deerfield, never developed the seigneurie, and sold it in 1711 to Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil
, whose seigneurie of Longueuil neighboured that of Belœil. Finally, after failed attempts in 1711 and 1723, permanent settlement began in 1725, with dwellers coming mostly from the island of Montreal or from seigneuries along the Saint Lawrence River
near Montreal. The low level of development forced local inhabitants to rely on the mission at Fort Chambly
, several hours to the south, for their religious needs, and the first mill
did not open until the early 1760s.
By 1768, however, local population had grown to the point where a request to the Bishop of Quebec
for the establishment of a mission was successful. In 1772, a presbytery
-chapel
was completed, and the registry of the parish of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil
, was opened. The parish received its first resident priest the next year, then, in 1775, François Noiseux became local priest, and, under his guidance and with his financing, the parish would build its first church from 1784 to 1787. The parish was canonically erected in 1832, and, after the first half of the nineteenth century saw the growth of a small hamlet around the church, became a parish municipality in 1855. The Saint-Mathieu church burned and was rebuilt twice (in 1817 and 1895); the third one still stands today.
Meanwhile, on 28 December 1848, the portion of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad
linking Montreal to Saint-Hyacinthe
opened, passing about two kilometres (1.25 mi) south of the Church. A station was built, and a second hamlet, Belœil-Station soon grew around it. This second hamlet soon attracted upper-class vacationers from Montreal, who built summer homes along the Richelieu river with views of the mountain. The railway bridge between Belœil-Station and Mont-Saint-Hilaire was, in 1864, the site of the worst train disaster in the history of Canada
when a passenger train plunged off the open bridge into the Richelieu river, killing 99. In 1878, industrialization began in Belœil when the Hamilton Powder Company
established an explosives factory a little to the south of Belœil-Station, in what would eventually become McMasterville.
In 1903, the two hamlets (around the Church and Belœil-Station), dissatisfied with the aqueduct service in the parish municipality of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil, requested and were granted permission to become the village of Belœil, whose population reached nearly 700 inhabitants in 1911. By 1914, the village had grown further, sufficiently so to become the ville
(city) of Belœil. Over these early years, the city developed its aqueduct and electricity networks. The city remained largely isolated from Montreal, except by train, owing to poorly organized road connections. The opening, in 1940, of the then-Route 9, today Quebec route 116
, provided a first direct link to Montreal, and, by the 1950s, the population had grown to nearly 6,000 inhabitants, and the two hamlets had grown into a single town. The construction, in 1964, of the Quebec Autoroute 20
freeway linking Montreal to Quebec and passing just north of Beloeil, the population of Belœil tripled over the next three decades as it became part of the Montreal suburbs.
One theory argues that the city derives its name from the view from atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire
. According to this theory, in 1693, shortly before receiving the seigneurie from Frontenac, Joseph Hertel and his brother Jean-Baptiste climbed atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire, where, upon seeing the view, Jean-Baptiste Hertel exclaimed "Quel bel œil!", which, in seventeenth century French, meant "What a beautiful view!". According to this theory, when he was later granted his seigneurie, Joseph Hertel, remembering the exclamation, chose to name it Belœil (beautiful view). The alternate theory states that the name derives from the like-named town in Belgium
, with a wide variety of possible links between the two towns.
While city government of Belœil refuses to take a position in the debate on the origin of the name, local historian Pierre Lambert has demonstrated that the various proposed links between the Belgian and Quebec cities are very tenuous at best, whereas the "Bel Œil" theory was first put forward by the Campbell family, who (having purchased the seigneurie of Rouville in the nineteenth century) had access to the archives of Jean-Baptiste Hertel. As a result, Lambert argues for "beautiful view" as the probable origin of the name.
Belœil lies in the central Saint Lawrence Lowlands
, a plain
s region on both sides of the Saint Lawrence river
. The elevation above sea level near the city on the western shore of the Richelieu is lower than 30 metres (98 ft), with the Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil Aerodrome, at the western edge of town, lying 14 metres (47 ft) above mean sea level. Just across the Richelieu river, however, the isolated Mont Saint-Hilaire
, which was known as Mount Belœil for most of the nineteenth century dominates the regional landscape with its 414 metres (1358 ft).
Generally, the region surrounding Belœil remains agricultural. The Census Consolidated Subdivision of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil
, which includes Belœil as well as McMasterville, has 33.7 square kilometres (13 sq mi) of farmlands, out of a total area of 67 square kilometres (42.6%). The wider Vallée-du-Richelieu census district, of which Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil is part, has 391.6 square kilometres (151.2 sq mi) of farmland, out of 589 square kilometres (227.4 sq mi) total area, or 66.4%.
Belœil is part of a broader agglomeration of over forty thousand inhabitants, formed by four towns spread out on the sides of the Richelieu River. It represents the northwestern portion of the agglomeration, and is separated from Mont Saint-Hilaire (northeastern) and Otterburn Park (southeastern) only by the Richlieu river, while Bernard-Pilon street (Quebec Route 229
) forms the limit between Belœil and McMasterville (southwestern). Most of the urban
portion of the city as it exists today lies within the area delimited by Bernard-Pilon street to the south, the Richelieu river to the east, Yvon-L'Heureux Boulevard to the west and Quebec Autoroute 20
to the north. The land north of the autoroute, or west of Yvon-L'Heureux is still largely rural.
Historically, Belœil grew as two separate hamlets, one around the Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil parish church, and the other around the train station. Although the inland growth of the town starting in the 1950s has linked the two hamlets into a single city, the historical neighborhoods still exist, as the Vieux-Belœil (en. Old Belœil), around the Saint-Mathieu church at the meeting of the Richelieu and Saint-Jean-Baptiste streets, and Belœil-Station by the railway and along the shores of the river further south, although much of the territory of Belœil-Station seceded in 1917 to form the municipality of McMasterville.
s, of which 2230 were couples (married or otherwise) with children (median income of $92,387), 2440 were childless couples (median income of $60,321), and 1695 were one-person households (median income of $28,400), with the balance being multiple-family households, one-parent family households and non-standard households. The average size of the Belœil household was 2.5 members.
In 2006, of the population 15 and over (15,380), 14,240 claimed to have been born in Canada to Canadian-born parents, while 570 each claimed to have been born in Canada to non-Canadian parents, and not born in Canada. Only 355 inhabitants claimed to belong to visible minorities, the largest of which were the Chinese and Latin American minorities (85 inhabitants each). The overwhelming majority of the population (17,615) reported French as their mother tongue, which was also the language most commonly used at home. Slightly less than half (8,110) the population of the town reported being able to communicate in both French and English .
The primary industries in terms of employment were the services industry, which employed 51.9% of the population, divided between business services (18.2%), education services and health care services (9.1% of the population each), and other services accounting for the balance. Other significant fields included retail trade (14.2%) and manufacturing (13.4%), while wholesale trade (5.2%), construction (6.1%), finance and real estate (6.8%) and agriculture (2.2%) employs much smaller portions of the population.
In February 2005, Belœil adopted a bylaw
limiting the size of commerce on its territory to no more than 40000 square feet (3,716.1 m²). This ban was particularly aimed at preventing attempts by Wal-Mart
to establish a 110000 square feet (10,219.3 m²) mega-store in the city.
, built in 1940, and autoroute 20
, built in 1964. Both of these roads connect Montreal to Quebec by way of Belœil and Saint-Hyacinthe. The route 116 serves as the primary commercial street of Beloeil.
There is no longer any local train station in Belœil. Instead, people wishing to take the Montreal commuter train must do so at the McMasterville train station. CIT de la Vallée du Richelieu
offers a bus
service linking Saint-Hyacinthe to Longueuil by way of Belœil along route 116. Its Longueuil terminus connects directly to the Yellow Line
of the Montreal Metro. An additional, more occasional service links Belœil to downtown Montreal directly.
However, the vast majority of the population of Belœil prefer to use the road to commute to work. In 2006, among the local population that worked outside their home, 81% reported driving to work, and 5% reported going in someone else's car, whereas only 7.5% reported using public transit. Among other methods of transportation, 5.9% reported walking or using a bicycle.
or university
). 22.9% of the total population reported having a university diploma or degree. Among those who did pursue post-secondary education, 2220 specialized in business and management, and 1775 in architecture and engineering.
Locally, Belœil has four French-language public elementary school
s serving around 1200 to 1300 elementary school age children (6 to 12): Le Petit Bonheur, Le Tournesol, Saint-Mathieu and Jolivent, which belong to the Commission Scolaire des Patriotes, as well as one English-language elementary school, Cedar. Belœil also has a French-language high school
, the École Secondaire Polybel.
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in southwestern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on the Richelieu River
Richelieu River
The Richelieu River is a river in Quebec, Canada. It flows from the north end of Lake Champlain about north, ending at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec downstream and northeast of Montreal...
, 32 kilometres (19.9 mi) east of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census
Canada 2006 Census
The Canada 2006 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897...
was 18,927. It is part of the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu
La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec
La Vallée-du-Richelieu is a Regional County Municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It surrounds the Richelieu River as the river makes its way from Lake Champlain in the United States north to the Saint Lawrence River northeast of Montreal at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec...
, within the Administrative Region of Montérégie
Montérégie
Montérégie is an administrative region in southwest Québec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Granby, Longueuil, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sorel-Tracy, and Vaudreuil-Dorion....
. It occupies the west shore of the Richelieu River
Richelieu River
The Richelieu River is a river in Quebec, Canada. It flows from the north end of Lake Champlain about north, ending at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec downstream and northeast of Montreal...
in front of the Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire , is an isolated hill, high, in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec. It is about thirty kilometres east of Montreal, and immediately east of the Richelieu River. It is one of the Monteregian Hills...
. Along with the municipality of McMasterville
McMasterville, Quebec
McMasterville is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 5,234. It is within the Administrative Region of Montérégie....
to the immediate south of Belœil, and the cities of Mont-Saint-Hilaire
Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec
Mont-Saint-Hilaire is an off-island suburb of Montréal in southeastern Québec, Canada on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu...
and Otterburn Park
Otterburn Park, Quebec
Otterburn Park is a small town located 40km east of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 8,464. The town lies south of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, on the Richelieu River, and is one of the few officially bilingual towns in Québec....
on the eastern bank of the Richelieu, Belœil forms an unbroken urban agglomeration of over 40,000 inhabitants, which is part of Greater Montreal.
Belœil was created as a village in 1903 and became a ville
Ville
Ville is the modern French word of Latin origin now meaning city or town, but the first meaning in the middle-ages was farm and then village...
(city) in 1914, but can trace its history through the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil, established in 1772, and the seigneurie
Seigneurial system of New France
The seigneurial system of New France was the semi-feudal system of land distribution used in the North American colonies of New France.-Introduction to New France:...
de Belœil, founded in 1694. Its name probably derives from the old French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
expression "Quel bel œil!", meaning "What a beautiful view!", generally attributed to Jean-Baptiste Hertel, brother of the first seigneur (lord) of Belœil, Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière
Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière
Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière was a military officer of New France. Born in Trois-Rivières when it was a small frontier town, he grew up with the constant threat of military action against the Iroquois...
.
History
Although there has been evidence found of a prior indigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
presence along the Richelieu River, none of it has been found on the territory of Belœil. Development of the region in the first several decades after the arrival of Europeans in the region was slow, owing to the geographic situation of the Richelieu, which made it a primary avenue of attack from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
toward New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
.
The recorded history of Belœil began on 18 January 1694 when Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac
Louis de Buade de Frontenac
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to his death in 1698...
granted Joseph Hertel a seigneurie along the shores of the Richelieu River, which Hertel called the Seigneurie de Belœil. Hertel, unwilling to abandon his military activities, such as the 1704 Raid on Deerfield, never developed the seigneurie, and sold it in 1711 to Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil
Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil
Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil was the first native-born Canadian to be made Baron in New France....
, whose seigneurie of Longueuil neighboured that of Belœil. Finally, after failed attempts in 1711 and 1723, permanent settlement began in 1725, with dwellers coming mostly from the island of Montreal or from seigneuries along the Saint Lawrence River
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
near Montreal. The low level of development forced local inhabitants to rely on the mission at Fort Chambly
Fort Chambly
Fort Chambly is a historic fort in the Canadian La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec. The fort is designated as a National Historic Site. Fort Richelieu was part of a series of five forts built along the Richelieu River. Fort Richelieu is at the mouth of the Richelieu River....
, several hours to the south, for their religious needs, and the first mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
did not open until the early 1760s.
Jean-Olivier Briand
Jean-Olivier Briand was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Quebec from 1766 to 1784.He was ordained as a priest in 1739 and left for Canada in 1741 with another priest, Abbé René-Jean Allenou de Lavillangevin and the newly appointed bishop of Quebec, Henri-Marie Dubreil de Pontbriand, in...
for the establishment of a mission was successful. In 1772, a presbytery
Presbytery (architecture)
The presbytery is the name for an area in a church building which is reserved for the clergy.In the oldest church it is separated by short walls, by small columns and pilasters in the Renaissance ones; it can also be raised, being reachable by a few steps, usually with railings....
-chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was completed, and the registry of the parish of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil
Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, Quebec
Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada, east of Montreal in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 2,288.-Population:Population trend-Language:...
, was opened. The parish received its first resident priest the next year, then, in 1775, François Noiseux became local priest, and, under his guidance and with his financing, the parish would build its first church from 1784 to 1787. The parish was canonically erected in 1832, and, after the first half of the nineteenth century saw the growth of a small hamlet around the church, became a parish municipality in 1855. The Saint-Mathieu church burned and was rebuilt twice (in 1817 and 1895); the third one still stands today.
Meanwhile, on 28 December 1848, the portion of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad
St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad
The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad , known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec in Canada, is a short line railroad operating between Portland, Maine on the Atlantic Ocean and Montreal, Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Canada-U.S...
linking Montreal to Saint-Hyacinthe
Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec
Saint-Hyacinthe is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 55,823. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie region, and is traversed by the Yamaska River which flows...
opened, passing about two kilometres (1.25 mi) south of the Church. A station was built, and a second hamlet, Belœil-Station soon grew around it. This second hamlet soon attracted upper-class vacationers from Montreal, who built summer homes along the Richelieu river with views of the mountain. The railway bridge between Belœil-Station and Mont-Saint-Hilaire was, in 1864, the site of the worst train disaster in the history of Canada
St-Hilaire train disaster
The St-Hilaire train disaster was a railroad disaster that occurred on June 29, 1864 near the present day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. The train, which had been carrying many German and Polish immigrants, failed to acknowledge a stop light and fell through an open swing bridge into the...
when a passenger train plunged off the open bridge into the Richelieu river, killing 99. In 1878, industrialization began in Belœil when the Hamilton Powder Company
Canadian Industries Limited
Canadian Industries Limited, also known as C-I-L is a Canadian chemicals manufacturer. Products include paints, fertilizers and pesticides, and explosives. It was formed in 1910 by the merger of five Canadian explosives companies...
established an explosives factory a little to the south of Belœil-Station, in what would eventually become McMasterville.
In 1903, the two hamlets (around the Church and Belœil-Station), dissatisfied with the aqueduct service in the parish municipality of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil, requested and were granted permission to become the village of Belœil, whose population reached nearly 700 inhabitants in 1911. By 1914, the village had grown further, sufficiently so to become the ville
Ville
Ville is the modern French word of Latin origin now meaning city or town, but the first meaning in the middle-ages was farm and then village...
(city) of Belœil. Over these early years, the city developed its aqueduct and electricity networks. The city remained largely isolated from Montreal, except by train, owing to poorly organized road connections. The opening, in 1940, of the then-Route 9, today Quebec route 116
Quebec route 116
Route 116 is an east/west highway on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Until the 1970s it was known as Route 9. Its eastern terminus is in Lévis at the junction of Route 132, and the western terminus is at the junction of Route 134 in Lemoyne part of a concurrency with...
, provided a first direct link to Montreal, and, by the 1950s, the population had grown to nearly 6,000 inhabitants, and the two hamlets had grown into a single town. The construction, in 1964, of the Quebec Autoroute 20
Quebec Autoroute 20
Autoroute 20 is a major Quebec Autoroute, following the Saint Lawrence River through one of the more densely-populated parts of Canada, and is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. At , it is the longest Autoroute in Quebec...
freeway linking Montreal to Quebec and passing just north of Beloeil, the population of Belœil tripled over the next three decades as it became part of the Montreal suburbs.
Name
The origins of the name Belœil have been a matter of debate between two competing theories.One theory argues that the city derives its name from the view from atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire , is an isolated hill, high, in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec. It is about thirty kilometres east of Montreal, and immediately east of the Richelieu River. It is one of the Monteregian Hills...
. According to this theory, in 1693, shortly before receiving the seigneurie from Frontenac, Joseph Hertel and his brother Jean-Baptiste climbed atop the Mont Saint-Hilaire, where, upon seeing the view, Jean-Baptiste Hertel exclaimed "Quel bel œil!", which, in seventeenth century French, meant "What a beautiful view!". According to this theory, when he was later granted his seigneurie, Joseph Hertel, remembering the exclamation, chose to name it Belœil (beautiful view). The alternate theory states that the name derives from the like-named town in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, with a wide variety of possible links between the two towns.
While city government of Belœil refuses to take a position in the debate on the origin of the name, local historian Pierre Lambert has demonstrated that the various proposed links between the Belgian and Quebec cities are very tenuous at best, whereas the "Bel Œil" theory was first put forward by the Campbell family, who (having purchased the seigneurie of Rouville in the nineteenth century) had access to the archives of Jean-Baptiste Hertel. As a result, Lambert argues for "beautiful view" as the probable origin of the name.
Geography
Saint Lawrence Lowlands
The St. Lawrence Lowlands is an ecoregion of Mixedwood Plains and a physiographic region of Canada and the United States. It is sometimes named the "Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Lowlands", but that name improperly includes the Great Lakes Basin which, while it might drain to the Atlantic Ocean by way...
, a plain
Plain
In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...
s region on both sides of the Saint Lawrence river
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
. The elevation above sea level near the city on the western shore of the Richelieu is lower than 30 metres (98 ft), with the Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil Aerodrome, at the western edge of town, lying 14 metres (47 ft) above mean sea level. Just across the Richelieu river, however, the isolated Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire
Mont Saint-Hilaire , is an isolated hill, high, in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec. It is about thirty kilometres east of Montreal, and immediately east of the Richelieu River. It is one of the Monteregian Hills...
, which was known as Mount Belœil for most of the nineteenth century dominates the regional landscape with its 414 metres (1358 ft).
Generally, the region surrounding Belœil remains agricultural. The Census Consolidated Subdivision of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil
Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, Quebec
Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada, east of Montreal in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 2,288.-Population:Population trend-Language:...
, which includes Belœil as well as McMasterville, has 33.7 square kilometres (13 sq mi) of farmlands, out of a total area of 67 square kilometres (42.6%). The wider Vallée-du-Richelieu census district, of which Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil is part, has 391.6 square kilometres (151.2 sq mi) of farmland, out of 589 square kilometres (227.4 sq mi) total area, or 66.4%.
Belœil is part of a broader agglomeration of over forty thousand inhabitants, formed by four towns spread out on the sides of the Richelieu River. It represents the northwestern portion of the agglomeration, and is separated from Mont Saint-Hilaire (northeastern) and Otterburn Park (southeastern) only by the Richlieu river, while Bernard-Pilon street (Quebec Route 229
Quebec Route 229
Route 229 is a Quebec provincial highway located in the Montérégie region. It runs from the junction of Route 112 in Rougement and ends at the junction of Route 132 in Varennes...
) forms the limit between Belœil and McMasterville (southwestern). Most of the urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
portion of the city as it exists today lies within the area delimited by Bernard-Pilon street to the south, the Richelieu river to the east, Yvon-L'Heureux Boulevard to the west and Quebec Autoroute 20
Quebec Autoroute 20
Autoroute 20 is a major Quebec Autoroute, following the Saint Lawrence River through one of the more densely-populated parts of Canada, and is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. At , it is the longest Autoroute in Quebec...
to the north. The land north of the autoroute, or west of Yvon-L'Heureux is still largely rural.
Historically, Belœil grew as two separate hamlets, one around the Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil parish church, and the other around the train station. Although the inland growth of the town starting in the 1950s has linked the two hamlets into a single city, the historical neighborhoods still exist, as the Vieux-Belœil (en. Old Belœil), around the Saint-Mathieu church at the meeting of the Richelieu and Saint-Jean-Baptiste streets, and Belœil-Station by the railway and along the shores of the river further south, although much of the territory of Belœil-Station seceded in 1917 to form the municipality of McMasterville.
Demographics
As of 2006, Belœil had a total population of 18,927 inhabitants, 9235 men and 9690 women. 82.9% of the population was over the age of 15; the median age was 41.7 years old (against Quebec averages of 83.4% and 41.0). In 2006, there were 7465 householdHousehold
The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....
s, of which 2230 were couples (married or otherwise) with children (median income of $92,387), 2440 were childless couples (median income of $60,321), and 1695 were one-person households (median income of $28,400), with the balance being multiple-family households, one-parent family households and non-standard households. The average size of the Belœil household was 2.5 members.
In 2006, of the population 15 and over (15,380), 14,240 claimed to have been born in Canada to Canadian-born parents, while 570 each claimed to have been born in Canada to non-Canadian parents, and not born in Canada. Only 355 inhabitants claimed to belong to visible minorities, the largest of which were the Chinese and Latin American minorities (85 inhabitants each). The overwhelming majority of the population (17,615) reported French as their mother tongue, which was also the language most commonly used at home. Slightly less than half (8,110) the population of the town reported being able to communicate in both French and English .
Population
Population trend| Census | Population | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 18,927 | 0.7% |
| 2001 | 19,053 | 1.2% |
| 1996 | 19,294 | 4.2% |
| 1991 | 18,516 | N/A |
Language
Mother tongue language (2006)| Language | Population | Pct (%) |
|---|---|---|
| French only | 17,615 | 94.58% |
| English only | 510 | 2.74% |
| Both English and French | 75 | 0.40% |
| Other languages | 425 | 2.28% |
Economy
Belœil, in 2006, had an unemployment rate of 4.6% (the provincial average is 7.0%. The median income in 2005 was $29,600 (the provincial median was $24,430). In 2006, 10 170 inhabitants reported being employed, of whom 5565 worked outside the Belœil region, or 54.7%. Belœil today is primarily a commuter town for people working in Montreal.The primary industries in terms of employment were the services industry, which employed 51.9% of the population, divided between business services (18.2%), education services and health care services (9.1% of the population each), and other services accounting for the balance. Other significant fields included retail trade (14.2%) and manufacturing (13.4%), while wholesale trade (5.2%), construction (6.1%), finance and real estate (6.8%) and agriculture (2.2%) employs much smaller portions of the population.
In February 2005, Belœil adopted a bylaw
Bylaw
By-law can refer to a law of local or limited application passed under the authority of a higher law specifying what things may be regulated by the by-law...
limiting the size of commerce on its territory to no more than 40000 square feet (3,716.1 m²). This ban was particularly aimed at preventing attempts by Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
to establish a 110000 square feet (10,219.3 m²) mega-store in the city.
Transportation
The major road connections to Belœil are route 116Quebec route 116
Route 116 is an east/west highway on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Until the 1970s it was known as Route 9. Its eastern terminus is in Lévis at the junction of Route 132, and the western terminus is at the junction of Route 134 in Lemoyne part of a concurrency with...
, built in 1940, and autoroute 20
Quebec Autoroute 20
Autoroute 20 is a major Quebec Autoroute, following the Saint Lawrence River through one of the more densely-populated parts of Canada, and is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. At , it is the longest Autoroute in Quebec...
, built in 1964. Both of these roads connect Montreal to Quebec by way of Belœil and Saint-Hyacinthe. The route 116 serves as the primary commercial street of Beloeil.
There is no longer any local train station in Belœil. Instead, people wishing to take the Montreal commuter train must do so at the McMasterville train station. CIT de la Vallée du Richelieu
CIT de la Vallée du Richelieu
The role of the CIT de la Vallée du Richelieu , officially the Conseil Intermunicipal de Transport de la Vallée du Richelieu, is a public transit agency serving eight member municipalities and the Richelieu Valley RCM in Quebec, Canada. These towns, located east Montreal along Quebec Route 116,...
offers a bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
service linking Saint-Hyacinthe to Longueuil by way of Belœil along route 116. Its Longueuil terminus connects directly to the Yellow Line
Line 4 Yellow (Montreal Metro)
The Yellow line is one of the metro's four routes operating in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was popular when it opened for service because it connected Montreal's city centre with the Expo 67 exhibition and La Ronde on Île-Sainte-Hélène. Line 4 has three stations, and travels under the St....
of the Montreal Metro. An additional, more occasional service links Belœil to downtown Montreal directly.
However, the vast majority of the population of Belœil prefer to use the road to commute to work. In 2006, among the local population that worked outside their home, 81% reported driving to work, and 5% reported going in someone else's car, whereas only 7.5% reported using public transit. Among other methods of transportation, 5.9% reported walking or using a bicycle.
Education
In 2006, of the population 15 and older, 57.6% reported having a post-secondary diploma of some form (vocational, CÉGEPCégep
CEGEP is an acronym for , which is literally translated as "College of General and Vocational Education" but commonly called "General and Vocational College" in circles not influenced by Quebec English. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the...
or university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
). 22.9% of the total population reported having a university diploma or degree. Among those who did pursue post-secondary education, 2220 specialized in business and management, and 1775 in architecture and engineering.
Locally, Belœil has four French-language public elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
s serving around 1200 to 1300 elementary school age children (6 to 12): Le Petit Bonheur, Le Tournesol, Saint-Mathieu and Jolivent, which belong to the Commission Scolaire des Patriotes, as well as one English-language elementary school, Cedar. Belœil also has a French-language high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, the École Secondaire Polybel.
Famous people
Several artists, sportsmen and politicians were born, lived, or died in Belœil:- Lorne "Gump" WorsleyGump WorsleyLorne John "Gump" Worsley was a professional ice hockey goaltender. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he was given his nickname due to friends deciding he looked like comic-strip character Andy Gump.-Career:...
, National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
goaltender for the Montreal CanadiensMontreal CanadiensThe Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
, New York RangersNew York RangersThe New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
and Minnesota North StarsMinnesota North StarsThe Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, and the team's colors for most of its history were green, yellow, gold and white...
, and member of the Hockey hall of fameHockey Hall of FameThe Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup... - Beatrice Lapalme, Early twentieth century opera singer, who performed before king Edward VII
- Louis-Philippe BrodeurLouis-Philippe BrodeurLouis-Philippe Brodeur, PC, QC baptised Louis-Joseph-Alexandre Brodeur was a Canadian parliamentarian and public servant....
, Lawyer, LiberalLiberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
MP, minister and speaker of the house, Supreme Court justice, and Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec - Eulalie DurocherEulalie DurocherEulalie Mélanie Durocher , known in religion as Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, was a Canadian Roman Catholic nun, best known for founding the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary...
, Blessed Mother Marie-Rose, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and MarySisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and MaryThe Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary is a teaching order founded at Longueuil, Québec, Canada in 1843 by Blessed Mother Marie-Rose for the Christian education of young girls.Their motto is: "Jésus et Marie, Ma Force et Ma Gloire" .Since 1843, the... - Alexis-Xyste BernardAlexis-Xyste BernardAlexis-Xyste Bernard was Bishop of St. Hyacinthe, Canada.The Institute of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St...
, Bishop of St. Hyacinthe - Philippe-Auguste ChoquettePhilippe-Auguste ChoquettePhilippe-Auguste Choquette was a Canadian Member of Parliament and Senator.He was born in Beloeil, Canada East, the son of Joseph Coquette and Thaïs Audet and studied at Université Laval...
, Lawyer, judge, Liberal MP and Senator. - Chantal Benoît, wheelchair basketball player.
- Allan LealAllan LealHerbert Allan Borden Leal, OC, QC was a Canadian civil servant and academic. He was Deputy Attorney General of Ontario, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, and Chancellor of McMaster University....
, Attorney-General of Ontario, member of the Order of CanadaOrder of CanadaThe Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.