Saint-Basile, Quebec


Saint-Basile is a municipality situated in Portneuf Regional County Municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec.
WWW Official Site

History

The area was originally part of the seigneuries of Jacques-Cartier, Auteuil, and Neuville. In the mid-19th-century, settlers arrived from places along the St. Lawrence, especially from Cap-Santé. In 1840, the Parish of Saint-Basile was formed, named in honour of Basil of Caesarea. In 1845, the parish municipality was established, dissolved in 1847, and reestablished in 1855.
In 1948, the Village Municipality of Saint-Basile-Sud separated from the parish municipality.
In 2000, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Basile and the Village Municipality of Saint-Basile-Sud merged again to form the new City of Saint-Basile.

Demographics

Population

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Saint-Basile 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.
Population trend:
Mother tongue :
  • English as first language: 1.3%
  • French as first language: 97.4%
  • English and French as first languages: 0.7%
  • Other as first language: 0.4%

Economy

[Image:Saint-Basile2.jpg|thumb|left|QC Cement in Saint-Basile]
The main economic activity in Saint-Basile is the cement plant owned Ciment Québec Inc. Towards the end of the 1940s, cement became a rare commodity in Canada. So Gustave Papillon wanted to manufacture it, starting in 1947. For this reason, he asked his father if he wanted to participate in this project. His father, Ernest-J. Papillon, agreed to partner with him on the condition that the company was based in the town of Saint-Basile. From the first year, Gustave bought the machinery and his father took care of the financing and legal matters. In 1951, the first rotary kiln was built. The factory initially used a so-called "wet" process. In the early 1980s, a modernization of the factory was undertaken with a switch to the "dry" type process. Today, it still employs between 150 and 200 workers during the year.

Government

List of former mayors since formation of current city: