Rimouski

Currency

Legi patrum fidelis - Faithful to the law of our fathers

Positioning

Rimouski is a regional capital and is the seat of several institutions. In 2002, Rimouski was amalgamated with these municipalities (estimate of the population in 2001):

Rimouski (31 305)
Rimouski-Is (2058)
Point-with-Father (4171)
Holy-Odile-on-Rimouski (1463)
Holy-Blandine (2218)
Mount-Lebel (334)

Districts

The city is divided into 10 districts or districts.

District 1 - Sacred Heart
District 2 - Nazareth
District 3 - Saint-Germain
District 4 - Rimouski-Is
District 5 - Point-with-Father
District 6 - Holy-Odile
District 7 - Saint-Robert
District 8 - Terraces Arthur-Buies
District 9 - Saint-Magpie-X
District 10 - Holy-Blandine/Mount-Lebel

History

Rimouski was founded by Rene Lepage, sior of Holy-Claire, in 1696. Originating in Ouanne, in Burgundy, it exchanged a ground which it had with the Île of Orleans in Augustin Rouer of Cardonnière, against the Seigneurie of Rimouski. This last was the owner since 1688, but had never been established there. Rene Lepage installs all his family with Rimouski.

Its family will emphasize her grounds until worms the years 1780, time when these grounds are gradually sold to a tradesman of Quebec, Joseph Drapeau. They extended then from the river Hâtée (the Biro) to the Métis river.

Today, a boulevard, a park and a monument at the western entry of the city bear the name of the sior Rene Lepage.

May 6th, 1950, Rimouski was the theater of a fire which destroyed 319 houses. One calls this event “the red night”. Fire began in the court with wood from the Price Brothers and Company on western bank from the Rimouski river, crossed in little time on other bank and was spread through the city while being pushed by strong winds. No one did not perish in the blazing inferno.

The island Saint-Barnabe vis-a-vis Rimouski

It is probably Samuel de Champlain itself which names the island Saint-Barnabe at the beginning of the 17th century when it côtoie a June 11th, feastday of Saint-Barnabe.

At the 17th century, the island is inhabited per All Saints' day Cartier, a hermit, whose history is still today wrapped mystery. According to the historian Marie-Andree Massicotte, the historical facts are the following: In 1728, All Saints' day Cartier, then old of a score of years, arrives at Rimouski and request to the lord Lepage, the permission to withdraw itself on the island Saint-Barnabe in order to live there as a hermit. Its request having been accepted, the hermit settles about the middle of the island, of the southern part, where it builds a hut and a small cattle shed.

It draws subsistence from the culture from a small holding and breeding of some pets, It crossed sometimes in Rimouski to attend the religious offices of the mission and, if it kept silence on itself, it could be pleasant in its exchanges with Rimouskois.

All Saints' day Cartier dies on January 30th, 1767. In one entitled book “The History off Emily Montague”, published in London in 1769, the novelist Frances Brooke imagines a romantic history around the character of All Saints' day Cartier which is read as follows:

In the beginnings of the colony, an young man originating in the Brittany, accompanied by its been engaged Louise, running away in direction of the News-France, until Rimouski. Day after day, All Saints' day felt attracted by the island Saint-Barnabe located opposite Rimouski. After having obtained the permission of the Lepage lord, All Saints' day goes up on board a launch in company of Louise and of an oarsman. Arrived on the shore, alone All Saints' day poses the foot on the island Saint-Barnabe to visit it. During this time, the oarsman brings back the launch in the middle of the bay which separates Rimouski from the island. However, while All Saints' day explored the island, an electric storm bursts. All Saints' day starts to run in order to regain the launch. Arrived on the shore, he sees the boat where are its been engaged and the oarsman, run under its eyes!

Under the shock, All Saints' day disappears. When it takes again its directions, the body of its been engaged to lie at its sides, brought back there by the tide. All Saints' day buries the body of Louise on the island and promises to him that from now on, it will pass the remainder of its days on the island Saint-Barnabe to living as a hermit…

This fiction will contribute to distort the truth on this character and to create the legend.

Military history

The military history crosses the years there, although discrete, the regiment of the Fusiliers of the St. Lawrence takes root with Rimouski on April 9th, 1869 and, today still, several hundreds of members are present in the area. This unit of light infantry was illustrated mainly at the time of the Première and the Second world war, without forgetting the recent participation of its members in Bosnia and Afghanistan.

More recently, NCSM D' Iberville took root with Rimouski. This division of the naval Reserve is officially baptized on November 14th, 1987.

Economy

The maritime vocation of Rimouski is undeniable. Sit of the maritime Institut of Quebec (IMQ), single in Quebec, which forms a semi-skilled labor in the fields of the sea (mechanical naval, logistics of the maritime transport, naval architecture, navigation, professional diving, etc). One also finds research centres of international reputation there: the Institute of the marine science (ISMER), maritime Innovation, the Maurice-Lamontagne Institute (IML) of the federal minister of Fishings and the Oceans and its scientific gate: the Observatory of the St. Lawrence (OSL). And more recently, the Research center on marine biotechnologies (CRBM).

Culture and sports

Rimouski has a rich person cultural life. Each year it is the host of the Festi Jazz International of Rimouski and of the international Carousel of film of Rimouski, a film festival for children. One of its major tourist attractions is the maritime Historic site of the Point-with-Father, centered on the disaster of the Empress off Ireland and the station of piloting to the headlight of Point-with-Father. The exposures report the most fatal shipwreck of the 20th century century after the tragedy of the Titanic .

The city is the host each year of the Living room of the book of Rimouski, oldest of all the events of the kind in Quebec. It was created in 1964 by a group of impassioned women of literature and who wished to make the literature more accessible to the young public. The living room presents each year more than 125 authors of the area and besides, representing more than 300 Québécois publishers distributed on some 75 stands. Supported by Inheritance Canada, the the Council of Arts of Canada, the Company of development of the cultural companies of Quebec and the town of Rimouski, the event attracts more than 8000 visitors each year in November.

Moreover, the sports are omnipresent with, inter alia, the club of hockey Océanic which belongs to the Ligue of hockey major junior of Quebec since 1995. Champion Canadian junior in 2000 and vice-champion in 2005 (Cut Memorial), the club has aligned several athletes for ten years which make their mark in the National league of hockey (LNH): Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards (Lightning de Tampa Bay), Juraj Kolnik (Panthers of Florida), Michel Ouellet (Lightning de Tampa Bay) and Eric Bélanger (Wild of Minnesota), and several others. That which currently holds the attention is the young person Sidney Crosby, one of rising stars of the National league of hockey. It was fished out by the Penguins de Pittsburgh at the summer 2005.

Rimouski has also its team of football, the Pionniers of the Cégep de Rimouski. Without speaking about a success comparable with Océanic, the club has a good base of amateurs. The ski station Mount-Comi, located at approximately 30 minutes in the south-east of the town of Rimouski is the host of an important annual competition: the snowmission . Rimouski accommodated the Jeux of Quebec during the winter 1975 and the winter 2001.

Establishments and institutions

One finds there the Université of Quebec with Rimouski (UQAR), the Cégep de Rimouski, the general-purpose school Paul-Hubert (Second larger general-purpose school of Quebec), the secondary school Langevin, the secondary school Saint-Jean-Baptist, as well as many elementary schools. Are there also some establishments more specialized: the maritime Institute of Quebec (IMQ), the Rimouski-Neigette Training center and the Institute of the marine science of Rimouski (ISMER).

The Academy of music of Quebec with Rimouski, founded in 1973, is one of the educational establishments of the music which constitute the network of the Conservatoire of music and dramatic art of Quebec.

An ultramodern theater was born in 2005, the Desjardins-Telus room. This room is located in front of the Academy of music and fact face directly at the Rene-Lepage boulevard and its Walk of the sea.

Of the three libraries of the municipality, the Library Smoothing iron-Morin is the principal one.

Trade and industries

The town of Rimouski is equipped with two industrial parks. The first, created in the middle of the years 1970, account approximately 175 Hectare S, i.e. 18 million square feet. It is located in the district number 8, close to the Aéroport, and shelters today a hundred companies getting of employment to a little more than 1.000 people. One finds industries of the Acier, transformation of wood and Béton, transport, tires, of Hydraulique and Usinage, Recyclage, in addition to several distributers and wholesalers and many warehouses.

In the west of this industrial park, one finds a retail park sheltering forty companies which employ some 800 people. Companies working in the fields of the Telephony and the Fiberoptic, transport and the Data-processing , construction and the Géomatique are gathered there. It is also in this zone that the Center of new economy (CNE) of the Low-Saint-Laurent is.

The other industrial park, created in the years 1990, is that of the district of Point-with-Father. It shelters companies of débosselage, painting and Imprimerie which offers an employment to approximately 300 people; it covers a surface of 115 hectares (12 million square feet).

The downtown area of Rimouski, as for him, includes/understands more than 500 business enterprises and of services and is helped in its development by the Foundation Downtown area.

Archbishop's palace

Archdiocese of Rimouski
Cathedral Saint-Germain de Rimouski

Environmental organizations

One finds two governmental organizations dedicated to environmental protection with Rimouski, that is to say the District council of Environment (CRE) of the Low-Saint-Laurent and the green Weight of Rimouski-Neigette.

The District council of the environment of the Low-Saint-Laurent is an organization dedicated to the dialog as regards environmental protection and sustainable development. It works in the eight regional municipalities of county of the Low-Saint-Laurent. At the historical level, the CRE of Be-of-Quebec (old not of the organization which covered also the Gaspésie) was one of the first councils of the environment to be born in Quebec in 1977.

The Forest, the Agriculture, the Water, the energy, the the St. Lawrence and the residual matters are the topics on lesquesl the CRE works in priority. The organization follows the evolution of these files, it informs the population of the main issues, it identifies solutions and encourages their implementation.

Founded in spring 2005, the green Poids of Rimouski-Neigette is an non-profit making organization whose mission is to promote in priority the environmental dimension of sustainable development and this, in a rassemblor spirit, creative and active. Working with the local scales, the green Weight acts as well as rural environment as urban, with the image of the territory to which it is dedicated: the MRC of Rimouski-Neigette, in the Low-Saint-Laurent, Quebec.

Directed by a coordination committee made up of seven voluntary, the green Weight currently gathers (in 2007) two committees. One of them is devoted to a better framing of the porcine development and takes an active part in the debates and consultations on the subject. As for the second committee, it aims at reducing the use of disposable plastic bags via a direct sensitizing with the citizens of the MRC and the establishment of partnerships with the trade and town councilors.

Municipalities bordering

Sources

Repertory of the municipalities of Quebec
Commission of toponymy of Quebec
municipal Businesses and areas - regional charts

External bonds

Tourism Rimouski
Gate Rimouskiweb
Cégep de Rimouski
Historic site maritime of the Point-with-Father
CRE Low-Saint-Laurent
green Weight

Images of Rimouski in external bonds

Place St-Laurent and the street St-Germain
Rimouski of today
Rimouski of yesterday

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