Repentigny, Quebec

Repentigny
City
Ville de Repentigny
Grenier Flour Mill
Coat of arms
Location within L'Assomption RCM.
Repentigny Location in central Quebec.
Coordinates: 45°44′N 73°28′W / 45.733°N 73.467°WCoordinates: 45°44′N 73°28′W / 45.733°N 73.467°W[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Lanaudière
RCM	L'Assomption
Founded	1670
Constituted	June 1, 2002
Government[2]
• Mayor	Chantal Deschamps
• MP	Monique Pauzé (BQ)
• MNAs	François Legault (C) Lise Lavallée (C)
Area[2][3]
• Total	71.30 km^2 (27.53 sq mi)
• Land	61.79 km^2 (23.86 sq mi)
Population (2011)[4]
• Total	82,000
• Density	1,327.1/km^2 (3,437/sq mi)
• Pop 2006–2011	7.6%
• Dwellings	33,309
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC−4)
Postal code(s)	J5Y, J5Z, J6A
Area code(s)	450 and 579
Highways A-40	Route 138 Route 341 Route 344
Website	www.ville.repentigny.qc.ca

Repentigny is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, located north of Montreal, on the lower end of the L'Assomption River and on the Saint Lawrence River. Repentigny and Charlemagne are the first towns off the Eastern tip of the island of Montreal. It is part of the Lanaudiere region.

History

It was founded in 1670 by Jean-Baptiste Le Gardeur, son of Seigneur Pierre Le Gardeur. During the town's first 250 years, Repentigny was only inhabited by a few hundred peasants, or habitants, and was an agricultural community. In 1677, the first population census only shows 30 inhabitants. Its first mayor was Benjamin Moreau 1855.

Repentigny merged with its neighbor city Le Gardeur on June 1, 2002. The city's area grew from 29 to 69 km² and the population grew by 70%.

Repentigny was also the western terminus of the Chemin du Roy, a road that extends eastward towards Quebec City.

Demographics

According to Statistics Canada 2011 census:^[4]

• Population in 2011: 82,000
• Population in 2006: 76,237
• (Population in 2001: 72,218)

The current mayor is Chantal Deschamps, who was first elected to the position in 1997 and has been re-elected to serve until 2013.

Languages

The 2006 census found that, counting single responses only, French was the mother tongue of 94.5% of the population, while English was the mother tongue of 1.4% of the population. The next most common languages were Creole (0.8%), and Spanish and Italian (0.7% each). 38.09% of Repentigny residents can speak both French and English.^[5]

Mother tongue	Population	Percentage
French	71,560	94.49%
English	1,050	1.39%
English and French	230	0.30%
English and a non-official language	40	0.05%
French and a non-official language	180	0.24%
English, French and a non-official language	25	0.03%
Creole	620	0.82%
Spanish	535	0.71%
Italian	500	0.66%
Arabic	310	0.41%
Portuguese	165	0.22%
Greek	90	0.12%
Khmer	80	0.11%

Ethnocultural ancestries

Single responses: 51.60% of respondents gave a single response of 'Canadian', while a further 17.67% identified with both 'Canadian', and one or more other ancestries. 15.13% of respondents gave a single response of French, 1.86% of respondents gave a single response of Québécois, 1.37% gave a single response of Italian, 1.34% gave a single response of Irish and 1.27% gave a single response of Haitian.

Multiple responses: Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were:

Canadian	69.27%
French	32.45%
Irish	4.06%
Italian	3.22%
Québécois	2.54%
North American Indian	2.32%
Scottish	1.60%
Haitian	1.54%
English	1.26%
German	1.24%

Percentages are calculated as a proportion of the total number of respondents and may total more than 100% due to dual responses.
All ethnocultural ancestries of more than 1% are listed in the table above according to the exact terminology used by Statistics Canada.^[6]

Transit

Repentigny is the central point for transit in South-Central Lanaudière. Its Centre d'Échange Rive Nord-Est (Northeastern Shore Transit Exchange Centre), administrated by Agence métropolitaine de transport, is the main infrastructure for transit in the region. Unlike a bus terminal, no departures are available from the Centre d'Échange, but transfers from one circuit to the other are possible. 9 of the 10 RTC de la MRC de L'Assomption transit system circuits travel via Centre d'Échange, in addition of the 2 CRTL regional lines. Thus, Repentigny is directly connected to Terrebonne, Charlemagne, L'Assomption, Montreal, Montréal-Est, Saint-Sulpice, Lavaltrie, Lanoraie, Sainte-Geneviève-de-Berthier, Berthierville, La Visitation-de-l'Île-Dupas, Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola, Saint-Paul-d'Industrie, Crabtree, Sainte-Marie-Salomé and Joliette.

The city of Repentigny takes part in the L'Assomption MRC public transportation network effort and pan-regional Lanaudière Regional Transport Commission, linking all of the Regional County Municipalities of Lanaudière, even the northmost ones. In addition there is the MRC Les Moulins.^[7]

Repentigny is connected to Montreal's Central Station by commuter rail via the Repentigny Station of Agence métropolitaine de transport's Mascouche Line.

Culture

Famous people born and/or raised in Repentigny :

• Les Cowboys Fringants, a Québécois folk-pop band.
• Marie Deschamps, a Canadian Supreme Court Justice.
• Benoît Hogue, a former NHL hockey player for the Dallas Stars
• Samuel Piette, a soccer player for Deportivo de La Coruña B
• Jason Pominville, a hockey player for the Minnesota Wild
• Pascal Leclaire, a hockey goalie for the Ottawa Senators
• Marie-Ève Pelletier, a professional tennis player.
• Maxim Lapierre, Pittsburgh Penguins forward.
• Jean-François Bérubé, New York Islanders goaltender.
• Solomon Juneau, Founder of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest city
• Karl Ouimette, a soccer player for the New York Red Bulls

Repentigny is home of many festivities :

• Festival de Feu et de Glace (Festival of Fire and Ice, a winter fest), January–February.
• Festival de spectacles jeune-public de Lanaudière (Youth theatre fest), early July.
• Challenge international de Volleyball Molson Ex Light (Molson Ex Light International Volleyball Challenge, International Volleyball event), late July. (Event last held in 2007.)
• Rendez-Vous Estival (Summer Rendez-Vous, a theme park with familial activities and rock shows), early August.
• Festival Gospel (Gospel Fest, International gospel choirs fest), mid-August.
• National de Soccer (Soccer Nationals, 18- level national soccer event), mid-August.
• Internationaux de Tennis junior du Canada Banque Nationale (National Bank Junior Tennis Internationals of Canada, the biggest sports event in the city), late August-early September
• Fête du Petit-Village (Little town fest, cultural rendez-vous in the old Saint-Paul-l'Ermite sector), every 2 autumns.
• Many outdoor shows and movie projections
• The Fête Nationale du Québec, la St-Jean, brings many activities, such as shows and performances on stage in Parc St-Laurent(Now Held To L'île Lebel.). The 2006 edition featured Marie-Mai, from Star Académie.

See also

• List of cities in Quebec
• Municipal reorganization in Quebec
• North Shore (Montreal)

References

1. Reference number 53054 of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (French)
2. Geographic code 60013 in the official Répertoire des municipalités (French)
3. "(Code 2460013) Census Profile". 2011 census. Statistics Canada. 2012.
4. Statistics Canada - Repentigny 2006 Community Profile.
5. "Repentigny, V". Detailed Mother Tongue (103), Knowledge of Official Languages (5), Age Groups (17A) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
6. "Repentigny, V". Ethnic Origin (247), Generation Status (4), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population 15 Years and Over of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
7. AMT autobus

External links

• Official website (French)