Baie-Comeau


Baie-Comeau is a city in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, and is the seat of Manicouagan Regional County Municipality. It is near the mouth of the Manicouagan River, named after the adjacent Comeau Bay. It has a population of 20,687 in the 2021 Canadian census, and the census agglomeration population is 26,643.
Baie-Comeau is the birthplace of Brian Mulroney, former prime minister of Canada.
Although the city is officially named in honour of Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau, the origin of the name actually comes from his father Antoine-Alexandre Comeau, who was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and had a camp there. Travelers would spontaneously think of “the bay of the Comeau camp”, perpetuated by word of mouth until the employees of the Geography Commission wrote Anse à Comeau on plans. When Baie-Comeau was founded however, the authorities were unaware of the origin of this name, and specified that it honored Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau.
WWW ville.baie-comeau.qc.ca

History

The oldest part of Baie-Comeau is the area known as Vieux-Poste near the mouth of the Amédée River where in 1889, the Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan Mission was founded by Eudists. In 1898, the first sawmill in the Côte-Nord region was built there by the brothers Damase and Henri Jalbert, but it closed in 1907 after their timber stock was swept into the St. Lawrence. In 1916, Route 138 was extended to Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan and in 1929, its post office opened with the English name of .
Baie-Comeau itself was founded in 1936 when a paper mill was constructed by Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Arthur A. Schmon oversaw the project, which included a power station and housing. Experiencing remarkable growth, the Town of Baie-Comeau was incorporated on May 20, 1937. Coinciding with the completion of the mill, the Hudson's Bay Company opened a store on September 15 of that same year. It was the first HBC small department store in Quebec. The area continued to see economic development with the establishment of the hydro-electric power stations on the Manicouagan and Outardes Rivers beginning with the Chutes-aux-Outardes Station in 1952, an aluminum smelter in 1958, and grain warehouses in 1959.
In 1950, the village of Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan was incorporated as the Municipality of Hauterive. In June 1982, Hauterive was merged into Baie-Comeau, taking effect on January 1, 1983. The HBC closed its Baie-Comeau store in 1986.
Baie-Comeau is the seat of the judicial district of Baie-Comeau.

Geography

Baie-Comeau is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, about northeast of Quebec City and southwest of Sept-Îles.
There are two urban area population centres within the city limits: Baie-Comeau proper, with a population of 9,100, and Hauterive, with a population of 11,147, in an area of and a density of, as of the 2021 Canadian census.
Baie-Comeau is crossed by five rivers: the Manicouagan River, the Amédée River, the Petit-Bras River, the Chasse River, and the English River. These rivers are fed by around thirty lakes.

Climate

Although at the same latitude as Vancouver or Paris, Baie-Comeau has a borderline humid continental climate, just above the subarctic climate. The cold Labrador Current makes the Gulf of St. Lawrence very cold and tends to cool the weather during summer much more than the marginal warming of the winters resulting from its maritime location. With the moist northeasterly winds coming in from the Icelandic Low, snowfall is very heavy, averaging around per year with a greatest average depth of around in March. The extreme snow depth was on January 10, 1969.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Baie-Comeau had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.
Knowledge of official languages from 2021 :
  • French only: 16,045
  • English only: 15
  • French and English: 4,385
  • Neither English nor French: 5

Economy

The region is a major forestry centre for the pulp and paper industry, owned by Abitibi Consolidated as of October 2006. Alongside hydro-electricity and the paper industry, an aluminum plant has fed employment for decades. Cargill has a large elevator there that is used to transfer grain from Great Lakes boats to ocean-going ships.

Sports

The 1993 Quebec Winter Games were played in Baie-Comeau.
Many different sports are played in Baie-Comeau:

Hockey

Baie-Comeau is home to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, an ice hockey team playing in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League since 1997. The team plays in the Centre Henry-Leonard located in the eastern sector of the town.

Skiing

The is an alpine ski centre located a few kilometers north of the town where it offers twelve slopes. Cross-country skiing is also popular. Students often frequent Mont-Tibasse as part of their school programs.

Golf

An 18-hole golf course is available in the western sector of the town. It is a semi-private golf club and is open for most of the summer.

Swimming

The two major high schools of the city each offer an indoor swimming pool and are open to the public year-round. Two outdoor swimming pools are also available to the public. These are open from the end of June until the middle of August each summer.
Some beaches are also available in the summer. There are other beaches are along the shore of the St. Lawrence river such as the and the, among others.

Tennis

Several outdoor tennis courts are available to the public in the different parks across town. They are open for most of the summer.

Football

The Baie-Comeau Vikings represent the Polyvalente des Baies in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean League. The team won championships in the eastern Quebec circuit in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and were finalists in 2005.

Government

The Baie-Comeau city council consists of the mayor of Baie-Comeau and eight elected city councillors, four from each of the two sectors of town. One recent mayor of Baie-Comeau was Yves Montigny, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2022 Quebec general election; Michel Desbiens became mayor in 2023.
List of former mayors:

Infrastructure

The town is along Route 138 about east of Forestville and about west of Sept-Îles. A ferry service of the Société des traversiers du Québec and rail ferry service of the COGEMA also links the town to Matane on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. The town is the southern terminus of Route 389, which leads to the Daniel-Johnson Dam, the town of Fermont, and the Labrador region of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Baie-Comeau Airport, located in neighbouring Pointe-Lebel, has scheduled flights from Air Liaison and Pascan Aviation.

Education

Baie-Comeau is home to several French-language public elementary schools, two French-language public high schools and one English-language public school that includes both the elementary and high school levels of education.
The town is also home to one French-language CEGEP called the Cégep de Baie-Comeau.
List of schools in Baie-Comeau:
School nameLevelSector
École Bois-Du-NordElementaryWestern
École BoisvertElementaryEastern
École LeventouxElementaryEastern
École Mgr-BélangerElementaryWestern
École Saint-Cœur-de-MarieElementaryWestern
École Serge-Bouchard High SchoolWestern
École TrudelElementaryWestern
Polyvalente des BaiesHigh SchoolEastern
Baie-Comeau High School Elementary and high schoolEastern

Notable people