| Belledune | |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Pushpin Map: | New Brunswick |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within New Brunswick |
| Pushpin Label: | Belledune |
| Pushpin Label Position: | left |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | New Brunswick |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Restigouche |
| Subdivision Type3: | Parish |
| Subdivision Name3: | Beresford |
| Subdivision Type4: | Parish |
| Subdivision Name4: | Durham |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 1799 |
| Established Title1: | Incorporated |
| Established Title2: | Amalgamation |
| Government Type: | City council |
| Governing Body: | Belledune Village Council |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Paul Arseneault |
| Leader Title1: | Deputy Mayor |
| Leader Name1: | Lilliane Carmichael |
| Area Total Km2: | 189.18 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Total: | 1,325 |
| Population Density Km2: | 7.0 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Percentage change (2016) |
| Population Blank1: | 6.5% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 782 |
| Utc Offset1: | -4 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | ADT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -3 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | E8G |
| Area Code Type: | Area code |
| Area Code: | 506 |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Highways |
| Blank Info Sec1: | |
Belledune is a port village in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It has a population of 1,325, and straddles the boundary between Restigouche County and Gloucester County, New Brunswick.
The community of Belledune was created through the amalgamation of Jacquet River, Armstrong Brook, and Belledune in 1994. The community dubbed itself a "Supervillage" after this amalgamation. Belledune's population meets the requirements as a "Town" under the Municipalities Act of the Province of New Brunswick, but it has not requested a change in municipal status and therefore remains as a village.
Belledune is one of the few municipalities not significantly affected by the province's 2023 local governance reforms.
See also: History of New Brunswick and List of historic places in Gloucester County, New Brunswick. The village, "Big Dune", was first settled by François Joseph Guittard around 1815, with a land grant approval in 1825 for two lots of land of 200 acres each.[1]
Guittard was born in Fauxbourg, St. Antoine, France, around 1774, and after fighting in Napoleon's army, he defected to the British Army. He and his wife Marie LeFilatre emigrated to Canada, and after a brief settling in Rivière-Ouelle, Quebec, they resettled in New Brunswick, where the promise of a land grant became a possibility. Guittard had also worked as a navigator, having helped map the New Brunswick coastline with the British military.
Settlers from the Miramichi Valley moved towards Belledune after the 1825 Great Miramichi Fire.
| List of Mayors of Belledune | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mayor | Term | class=unsortable | References | ||
| Delphis Hickey | 1969 – May 10, 1977 | bgcolor= | Independent | [2] [3] | |
| J. Arnold Talbot | May 10, 1977 – May 14, 1980 | bgcolor= | Independent | [4] | |
| John McDonnell | May 14, 1980 – May 1986 | bgcolor= | Independent | ||
| Joseph H. Hodgins | May 1986 – May 8, 1989 | bgcolor= | Independent | [5] | |
| Andy Flanagan | May 8, 1989 – May 14, 2001 | bgcolor= | Independent | [6] | |
| Joseph R. Noël | May 14, 2001 – May 10, 2004 | bgcolor= | Independent | [7] | |
| Nick Duivenvoorden | May 10, 2004 – May 14, 2012 | bgcolor= | Independent | [8] | |
| Ron Bourque | May 14, 2012 – May 9, 2016 | bgcolor= | Independent | [9] | |
| Joseph R. Noël | May 9, 2016 – May 10, 2021 | bgcolor= | Independent | [10] | |
| Paul A. Arseneault | May 10, 2021 – present | bgcolor= | Independent | [11] | |
Belledune underwent unprecedented development during the 1960s when under the premiership of Louis Robichaud a major regional port was built to service various industries on the north shore of New Brunswick.
The first major industrial projects at the port included in 1966 a lead and zinc smelter, formerly Brunswick Mining and Smelting Corporation, but now owned by Glencore with a nominal production of 120,000 tonnes per year.[12] [13] [14] built in support of the lead and zinc mines opened south of Bathurst during the 1950s in the Bathurst Mining Camp. A $30 million venture at the time, the smelter has managed to extract silver from its imported silver lead concentrates, and in 2011 produced 400mt of pure silver valued at 448M$; the company proposes to increase its silver production to 700mt.[15] The current permit to operate is file number I-7107.[16]
NB Power opened the Belledune Generating Station, a coal-fired thermal generating station, at the port in 1993.[17]
The announcement of the closure of the Glencore smelter was issued in late 2019. At that time, the company workforce was on strike. The site decommissioning will continue to 2028.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Belledune had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 189.18km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[18]
| Canada Census Mother Tongue - Belledune, New Brunswick | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | ||||||
| 1,285 | 13.2% | 82.90% | 235 | 14.6% | 15.16% | 25 | 25.0% | 1.61% | 5 | n/a% | 0.32% | ||||||||
| 1,480 | 13.4% | 86.80% | 205 | 6.8% | 12.02% | 20 | 100.0% | 1.17% | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| 1,710 | 3.9% | 88.14% | 220 | 15.4% | 11.34% | 10 | 71.4% | 0.52% | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| 1,780 | n/a | 85.78% | 260 | n/a | 12.53% | 35 | n/a | 1.69% | 0 | n/a | 0.00% | ||||||||
See main article: List of people from Gloucester County, New Brunswick.