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Home > Travel Canada > Canada Destinations > Jonquiere, Quebec (Ville)
Jonquiere, Quebec (Ville)
Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. It is the 2nd largest country in the world in area, after Russia, and has the longest coastline of any country in the world, being next to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans. Canada has the highest mountain range in the whole world. Around 30 million people live in Canada's ten provinces and three territories. Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
Jonquiere was a city on the Saguenay river in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, near Chicoutimi. In 2002, Jonquiere became an arrondissement or borough, of the mega-city Ville de Saguenay. Jonquiere itself was the result of the agglomeration of three cities Kenogami, Jonquiere and Arvida. In 2001, the city had the total population of 54,842.
Much of Jonquiere's development owed its strength to the Price family, who ran a pulp and paper factory in Kenogami. Today that pulp and paper factory is owned by Abitibi-Consolidated. Arvida is the home of an aluminum plant owned by Alcan. Jonquiere is probably most well known in the United States because of its Wal-Mart store, which attempted to unionize and was closed down shortly thereafter. The official reason for this shutdown was labelled as financial problems.
Jonquiere was founded in 1847 by Marguerite Belley, who came from La Malbaie, Quebec, to settle on the Riviere aux Sables. It was named after the Marquis de La Jonquiere, governor of New France from 1749 to 1752.
Growth came from the construction of pulp and paper mills at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1925 and 1928, the world's largest aluminum plant was built along with the city Arvida then a separate town. In 1942, to supply power to the plant, Alcan built a hydroelectric station at Shipshaw a village on the Saguenay river that was also the largest in the world at that time. Jonquiere, Arvida, and Kenogami were amalgmated into a single city, Jonquiere, in 1975.
Jonquiere was the host city for the Quebec Games in the winter of 1976. The Riviere aux Sables runs through the centre of Jonquiere. In the summer of 1996, significant damage to the city's buildings was caused by extensive flooding. It is also said the place of best geographical environment and can trace its origin back to prehistoric times.
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