Lloydminster is a city in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.Lloydminster at The Canadian Encyclopedia The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administration.
History
Intended to be an exclusively British utopian settlement centred on the idea of sobriety, Lloydminster was founded in 1903 by the Barr Colonists, who came directly from the United Kingdom. At a time when the area was still part of the North-West Territories, the town was located astride the Fourth Meridian of the Dominion Land Survey. This meridian was intended to coincide with the 110° west longitude, although the imperfect surveying methods of the time led to the surveyed meridian being placed a few hundred metres (yards) west of this longitude.
The town was named for George Lloyd, an Anglican priest who would become Bishop of Saskatchewan in 1922. Lloyd was a strong opponent of non-British immigration to Canada. During a nearly disastrous immigration journey, which was badly planned and conducted,Shara Buchan. History of Lloydminster he distinguished himself with the colonists and replaced the Barr Colony's leader and namesake Isaac Montgomery Barr during the colonists' journey to the eventual townsite.
The town developed rapidly: by 1904, there was a telegraph office as well as a log church; in 1905, the Lloydminster Daily Times started publication and the first train arrived on July 28. Its main north–south street, today named Meridian Avenue (or 50th Avenue), along which stores, businesses and the post office began locating, was situated right on the Fourth Meridian, although the actual road right-of-way was located in Saskatchewan. To comply with temperance principles, alcohol was not available in Lloydminster for the first few years after its founding.
Beginning in 1900, calls for provincial autonomy in Western Canada grew, including from Frederick Haultain and James Hamilton Ross, two members of the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories. Haultain and Ross initially proposed that the districts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Assiniboia, and Athabasca be merged to create one province. However, feeling that such a large province would be too large to administer, Parliament chose to create the two new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905.
When Alberta and Saskatchewan were created, the Fourth Meridian was selected as the border, bisecting the town right along its main street. Lloydminster residents petitioned for the new border to be revised so as to encompass the entire town within Saskatchewan, without success. Lloydminster functioned as two towns with separate municipal administrations until the provincial governments agreed in 1930 to amalgamate the towns into a single town under shared jurisdiction. The provinces, again jointly, reincorporated Lloydminster as a city in 1958.
Commemorating Lloydminster's distinctive bi-provincial status, a monument consisting of four survey markers was erected in 1994 near the city's downtown core.
The majority of Lloydminster's population lived on the Saskatchewan side until recent decades; in the 2011 Canadian Census, nearly two-thirds of the city's population lived on the Alberta side. In 2000, the city hall and municipal offices were moved from Saskatchewan to an Alberta location on Meridian Avenue, also known as 50th Avenue, which runs along the Fourth Meridian.
Despite its bi-provincial status, Lloydminster was not exempted from anti-smoking legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. Citizens responded by initiating a referendum against the wishes of the mayor, as permitted in the charter, which resulted in the enactment of a citywide anti-smoking bylaw. The matter became moot when Alberta enacted its own anti-smoking legislation, which was the solution that the mayor and council preferred.
Geography
The provincial border runs north to south, falling directly on 50th Avenue (Meridian Avenue) in the centre of Lloydminster. Meridian Avenue north of the Yellowhead Highway (also named 44th Street) remains the main downtown street for stores, offices and businesses, with some also located on the intersecting east–west streets. Addresses east of 50th Avenue are considered to be in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan and addresses west of 50th Avenue are considered to be in Lloydminster, Alberta. The city is bordered by the County of Vermilion River, Alberta, on the west, the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Britannia No. 502, Saskatchewan, on the northeast and the R.M. of Wilton No. 472, Saskatchewan, on the southeast. The majority of the large retail properties serving the city, including larger stores, gas stations and hotels, are located in its Alberta portion, in particular along the Yellowhead Highway west of Meridian Avenue and along the Alberta side of 50th Avenue south of the Yellowhead Highway.
Lloydminster's distinctive situation is reflected in other legal matters, including its time zone, which is Alberta Time (UTC–6:00). Most of Saskatchewan does not observe daylight saving time, instead staying on Central Standard Time year-round. Until 2026, Alberta mandated daylight saving time. Lloydminster's charter allowed the city to follow Alberta's use of daylight saving time on both sides of the provincial border in order to keep all clocks within the city in synchronization. This had the effect of placing Lloydminster and the surrounding area in the Mountain Time Zone along with Alberta. During the summer therefore, the entire city was on UTC−06:00—Mountain Daylight Time, which is the same as the rest of Saskatchewan where the time is defined as Central Standard Time. During the winter, Lloydminster was on Mountain Standard Time with the rest of Alberta, which is UTC−07:00, and was therefore one hour behind the time in the rest of Saskatchewan. Since 2026, Lloydminster is permanently synchronized with the rest of Alberta.
The provincial line divides the city in two aspects related to communications. Telephones on the Saskatchewan side are assigned to area codes 306 and 639, the two area codes assigned to that province, while land lines on the Alberta side have numbers in the 780 and 587 area codes, the two area codes assigned to northern Alberta. Similarly, Saskatchewan addresses have a postal code with a forward sortation area designation (first three characters) of "S9V", and addresses in Alberta have postal codes beginning with "T9V". All postal codes in Canada beginning with the letter "S" are assigned to Saskatchewan, and those beginning with "T" belong to Alberta.
Climate Lloydminster experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), which approaches a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) due to May and September being only marginally above . Winters are long, cold and dry, while summers are short, warm and moderately wet. Year-round precipitation is fairly low, with an average of , whilst the dry winters restrict snowfall to .
The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 13 January 1911. The highest temperature ever recorded in Lloydminster was on 12 July 2002. The record high daily minimum was recorded July 10, 2001. The record highest dew point was recorded July 28, 1987. The most humid month was July 2012 with an average dew point of . The warmest month was July 2007 with an average mean temperature of .
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Alberta portion of the City of Lloydminster had a population of 19,739 living in 7,636 of its 8,530 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 19,645. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The Saskatchewan portion of Lloydminster had a population of 11,843 living in 4,443 of its 5,002 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 11,765. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. Overall, the entire City of Lloydminster 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 2016.
In the 2016 Census of Population, the Alberta portion of the City of Lloydminster had a population of 19,645 living in 7,444 of its 8,444 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 18,032. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan portion of Lloydminster had a population of 11,765 living in 4,392 of its 4,909 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 9,772. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. Overall, the entire City of Lloydminster had a population of 31,410 living in 11,836 of its 13,353 total private dwellings in the 2016 Census of Population, a change of from its 2011 population of 27,804. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
The City of Lloydminster's 2015 municipal census counted a population of 31,377, a change of −0.3% from its 2013 municipal census population of 31,483. Of the 31,377 residents, 19,740 () lived on the Alberta side and 11,637 () lived on the Saskatchewan side.
There are substantial demographic differences between the populations on each side of the border, with the population on the Saskatchewan side being substantially younger; the median age on the Saskatchewan side is 26.6, nearly seven years less than the median age of 33.2 on the Alberta side. Even when combining the median ages for both sides of the city, Lloydminster has the youngest median age in all of Canada.Age and Sex Highlight Tables, 2006 Census Also, the specific age group of 20–24 is much more concentrated on the Saskatchewan side. The two sides of the city have virtually identical numbers of people in that age group (1,220 in Saskatchewan, 1,230 in Alberta) even though the total population on the Alberta side is nearly twice that of the Saskatchewan side. This situation has been attributed in part to differential car insurance rates for drivers; because Saskatchewan has a public auto insurance system while Alberta relies on conventional private insurance, young drivers with the highest insurance rates can save thousands of dollars by living in Saskatchewan rather than Alberta."NDP proposes plan to revamp Alberta insurance" . Lloydminster Meridian Booster, October 27, 2003.
The census agglomeration of Lloydminster includes both parts of the city, as well as the rural municipality of Wilton No. 472, the town of Lashburn, and the village of Marshall, Saskatchewan.
Language About 94% of residents identified English as their first language. More than 1.4% of the population identified French as their first language, while 0.8% identified German, 0.7% identified Ukrainian, and 0.5% identified Cree as their first language learned. The next most common languages were Chinese and Spanish at about 0.3% each.
Ethnicity More than 8% of residents identified themselves as aboriginal at the time of the 2006 census.
+ Panethnic groups in the City of Lloydminster (2001–2021)Panethnic group20212016201120062001 European 21,470 22,600 23,400 21,180 18,130 Indigenous 4,135 3,320 2,100 1,980 2,000 Southeast Asian 3,370 2,635 1,005 85 250 South Asian 1,005 1,130 330 120 105 African 400 510 125 70 35 East Asian 200 240 150 160 100 Middle Eastern 150 200 30 60 60 Latin American 130 160 165 80 30 Other/multiracial 105 140 40 10 20 Total responses 30,990 30,915 27,365 23,755 20,715 Total population 31,582 31,410 27,804 24,028 20,988
Religion