Saguenay ( , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River. It was formed in 2002 by merging the cities of Chicoutimi and Jonquière and the town of La Baie. Chicoutimi was founded by the French as a fur trading post in 1676. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 148,000 and the metropolitan area had a population of 170,000.
The city of Saguenay constitutes a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE); its geographical code is 941. Together with the regional county municipality of Le Fjord-du-Saguenay, it forms the census division (CD) of Le Saguenay-et-son-Fjord (94). The mayor of Saguenay since 2025 is Luc Boivin. Prior to its use as the name of the city, the term "the Saguenay" or (less commonly) "Saguenay Valley" had already been used for the entire Saguenay River region (see Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean). Saguenay is the seat of the judicial district of Chicoutimi.Territorial Division Act. Revised Statutes of Quebec D-11.
The city is divided into three boroughs: Chicoutimi (which includes the former city of Chicoutimi, as well as Laterrière and Tremblay township), Jonquière (which includes the former city of Jonquière, Lac-Kénogami, and Shipshaw) and La Baie (which corresponds to the former city of La Baie).
The name Saguenay is possibly derived from the Innu word "Saki-nip", which means "where water flows out".
History Saguenay was formed on February 18, 2002, by amalgamating the cities of Chicoutimi, Jonquière, La Baie and Laterrière, along with the municipalities of Lac-Kénogami and Shipshaw and part of the township of Tremblay.http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/publications/referenc/pdf/modfev02.pdf
Chicoutimi
First Nations people, including Innus have inhabited the Saguenay Fjord area for thousands of years prior to the first Europeans arriving. What was ultimately to become the centre of the borough of Chicoutimi was first settled in 1676 as a French trading post in the fur trade. At that time, the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers had been used for centuries by the Innu. The name Chicoutimi means 'the end of the deepwater' in the Montagnais. Chicoutimi trading post was in operation until 1782.
The city of Chicoutimi was officially incorporated as a municipality in 1845 by Peter McLeod, a Métis timber contractor, who had built a sawmill there in 1842. It was designated in 1855 as the seat of Chicoutimi County and in 1878 as the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicoutimi.
With the arrival of the Canadian National Railway in 1893, the local pulp and paper industries expanded, particularly in mechanical pulp production. The Chicoutimi Pulp Co. was founded in 1896 and backed by French-Canadian investors. By 1910 the Chicoutimi Pulp Mill became the biggest producer of mechanical pulp in Canada.
The economic decline of the Great Depression led the city's economy to shift administration and commerce and commercial. The Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay was founded in Chicoutimi in 1967, and the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi was founded in 1969. The city played host to the Quebec Summer Games in 1972.
In the municipal amalgamations of 1976, Chicoutimi annexed the neighbouring towns of Chicoutimi-Nord and Rivière-du-Moulin. In a later round of amalgamations in 2002, the cities of Chicoutimi, Jonquière, La Baie, Lac-Kénogami, Laterrière, Shipshaw and part of Tremblay merged to form the new city of Saguenay. Chicoutimi became a borough of Saguenay.
During the summer of 1996 a record rainfall in the region caused major flooding in the downtown, as well as outlying areas. The total cost of the disaster was recorded to be C$1.5 billion. It claimed seven lives and destroyed many bridges.
Jonquière
Jonquière was founded in 1847 by Marguerite Belley, who came from La Malbaie to settle on the Rivière aux Sables. It was named after Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière, Marquis de la Jonquière, 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 that was the largest in the world at that time. Jonquière, Arvida, and Kénogami were amalgamated into a single city, Jonquière, in 1975. Jonquière was the host city for the Quebec Games in the winter of 1976, and for the Canoe/Kayak World Championships in slalom and whitewater racing, in 1979.
Much of Jonquière's development owed its strength to the Price family, who ran a pulp and paper factory in Kénogami. Today that factory is owned by Produits Forestiers Résolu. Arvida is the home of an aluminium plant owned by Rio Tinto Alcan."Wal-Mart Closure Touches Off Union Debate", National Public Radio.
When the city of Saguenay was constituted on February 18, 2002, by municipal amalgamation, the borough of Jonquière was created from the former city of Jonquière, the former municipality of Shipshaw, and the former municipality of Lac-Kénogami. The former city of Jonquière had a population of 54,842 in the Canada 2001 Census, the last census in which Jonquière was counted as a separate city.2001 Statistics Canada Community Profiles: Jonquière
The Rivière aux Sables runs through the centre of Jonquière. Significant damage to the city's buildings was caused by the 1996 Saguenay flood.
Geography
Saguenay is located in a depression in the Canadian Shield called the Saguenay Graben, which has a somewhat more temperate climate than the surrounding region. This has encouraged agriculture and human settlement to take place. The relatively small and concentrated Lac St-Jean area where the city is located can be described as an isolated "oasis" in the middle of the vast remote wilderness of Northern Quebec. No paved roads go north from the area into the wilderness; the last paved roads to the north end just a short distance from the city, and still within the Lac St-Jean area. There are no human settlements due north of Saguenay all the way to the Canadian Arctic islands, except for a few isolated Cree and Inuit villages. Few roads connect with the area from the south and east. However, the remote, paved Route 167/113 heads northwest to the interior town of Chibougamau, providing access to Western Quebec and Hudson Bay. No services are available for the to Chibougamau from the Lac St-Jean area.
Two notable natural disasters have occurred within the current municipal boundaries of Saguenay: the Saint-Jean-Vianney landslide of May 4, 1971, and the Saguenay flood of 1996. The 1988 Saguenay earthquake, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on November 25, 1988, had its epicenter 35 km south of Chicoutimi and was felt within the city.
Climate Saguenay has a humid continental climate (Köppen Climate Classification Dfb) with large variation between summer and winter. The city features two brief transition seasons (spring and autumn), while summers are warm and occasionally hot, and winters are long and very cold. Temperatures drop below on average 43 times per year and below 6 times per year. The low winter temperatures characteristic of Saguenay are caused by a combination of factors, such as the cold waters of the Labrador Current and Hudson Bay to the north and east of the city.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Saguenay was on August 18, 1935. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on February 5, 1916.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Saguenay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Saguenay CMA had a population of 161,567 living in 74,809 of its 79,976 total private dwellings, a change of 0.0% from its 2016 population of 161,520. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
The ville of Saguenay had a 2021 population of 144,723. The median age is 46.0, as opposed to 41.6 for all of Canada.
The area is home to 420 recent immigrants (i.e. those arriving between 2016 and 2021), who comprise about 0.3% of the total population. 145 of them come from France, and 140 come from various African countries, with Cameroon leading at 40 recent immigrants.
Ethnicity As of 2021, Indigenous peoples comprised 5.4% of the population and visible minorities contributed 2.0%.
The largest visible minority groups in Saguenay are Black (0.9%), Arab (0.3%), and Latin American (0.3%). Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: Ethnic origin2021Canadian41.3%French19.9%Québécois15.7%French Canadian11.6%First Nations3.0%Irish2.4%Scottish1.6%Métis1.5%Acadian1.2%Innu1.0%
+ Panethnic groups in the City of Saguenay (2001−2021)Panethnicgroup2021201620112006 European 132,880 134,405 136,520 138,195 Indigenous 5,370 5,860 3,550 2,215 African 1,310 650 385 330 Middle Eastern 460 395 230 180 Latin American 415 225 190 280 East Asian 260 305 260 310 Southeast Asian 180 205 80 105 South Asian 120 120 35 40 Other 130 70 30 0 Total responses 141,120 142,225 141,330 141,680 Total population 144,723 145,949 144,746 143,692 Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.
Language French was the mother tongue of 97.4% of residents in 2021. The next most common mother tongues were English at 0.8%, followed by Spanish at 0.4%. 0.4% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.2% who reported both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue.
Religion In 2021, 71.5% of the population identified as Catholic, a 20.0% decrease from 2011, while 21.1% said they had no religious affiliation. Muslims were the largest religious minority, making up 0.5% of the population.
Economy
Saguenay's economy"Virage économique," Le Quotidien, 27 Août 2010, p. 10. is in transition.Patricia Rainville, "Une ville méconnaissable dans quatre ans," Le Quotidien, 23 Octobre 2009, p. 15. It is increasingly based on developing research and teaching in applied technologies for energy,François Hains, Nancy Bourgeois, « Saguenay, une ville en changement », Urbanité, automne 2011, pp. 36–38. aluminum, boreal forest, genomics and biomedical sciences.Claude Côté, « Saguenay vogue vers le succès », Industrie & Commerce, Octobre-novembre 2011, pp. 3–5.
Saguenay has three large industrial parks totaling of commercial facilities: five city centres and shopping centres, six shopping centres, power centres, and five major commercial arteries.
Saguenay, in the borough of La Baie, opened a pier in 2006 followed by the Bagotville wharf cruise terminal in 2009, in order to accommodate some of the larger cruise ships such as and . At least 200 cruise ships have visited La Baie, including 54 ships and over 50,000 passengers in 2017.
In addition, Rio Tinto Alcan confirmed in December 2010 investment of 750 million dollars to upgrade its pilot plant in Jonquière AP-60.Michel Munger, « Rio Tinto Alcan lance finalement so technologie AP60 », ARGENT, 14 décembre 2010 (Texte intégral (archive)) The plant was estimated to be 40% more productive than the existing aluminum plant. The first phase included 38 tanks equipped with new technology, with an estimated production of 60,000 tons of aluminum per year. The first ingots were cast in the first quarter of 2013.