| Baie-Comeau | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Pushpin Map: | Côte-Nord Region Quebec |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Côte-Nord region of Quebec |
| Coordinates: | 49.2167°N -77°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Côte-Nord |
| Subdivision Type3: | RCM |
| Subdivision Name3: | Manicouagan |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 1936 |
| Established Title1: | Constituted |
| Established Date1: | June 23, 1982 |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Michel Desbiens |
| Leader Title1: | Federal riding |
| Leader Name1: | Manicouagan |
| Leader Title2: | Prov. riding |
| Leader Name2: | René-Lévesque |
| Total Type: | Total |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 434.54 |
| Area Land Km2: | 334.83 |
| Area Urban Km2: | 11.28 |
| Area Metro Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Metro Km2: | 682.89 |
| Area Note: | Urban area is for Baie-Comeau proper |
| Elevation M: | 21.60 |
| Population Total: | 20,687 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Density Km2: | 61.8 |
| Population Urban: | 9,100 |
| Population Density Urban Km2: | 806.5 |
| Population Metro: | 26,643 |
| Population Density Metro Km2: | 39 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Change (2016-21) |
| Population Blank1: | 3.9% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 10,163 |
| Population Note: | Urban population is for Baie-Comeau proper |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −05:00 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −04:00 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code(s) |
| Postal Code: | G4Z, G5C |
| Area Codes: | 418 and 581 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
Baie-Comeau (in French pronounced as /be.kɔ.mo/) 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.[3] It has a population of 20,687 in the 2021 Canadian census, and the census agglomeration population is 26,643.[1]
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 (Comeau Cove) 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 (1848-1923).
The oldest part of Baie-Comeau is the area known as Vieux-Poste (Old Post) 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 (francized in 1936).[3] [4]
Baie-Comeau itself (the eastern part of the current town) 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.[5] 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 (the largest in Canada) in 1959.[3] [4]
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.[3] [4] The HBC closed its Baie-Comeau store in 1986.[5]
Baie-Comeau is the seat of the judicial district of Baie-Comeau.[6]
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,[1] and Hauterive, with a population of 11,147, in an area of and a density of, as of the 2021 Canadian census. [7]
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.
Although at the same latitude as Vancouver or Paris, Baie-Comeau has a borderline humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), 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.
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 334.83km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[1]
Knowledge of official languages from 2016 (multiple answers were possible):[1]
| Visible minority and Aboriginal population (Canada 2006 Census) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population group | Population | % of total population | ||
| 21,665 | ||||
| Visible minority group Source:[8] | South Asian | 0 | ||
| 25 | ||||
| 50 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 15 | ||||
| Southeast Asian | 10 | |||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| Visible minority, n.i.e. | 0 | |||
| Multiple visible minority | 0 | |||
| Total visible minority population | 110 | |||
| Aboriginal group Source:[9] | 230 | |||
| 165 | ||||
| 35 | ||||
| Aboriginal, n.i.e. | 0 | |||
| Multiple Aboriginal identity | 0 | |||
| Total Aboriginal population | 430 | |||
| Total population | 22,205 | 100% | ||
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.
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: