Saint-Jérôme () (2021 population 80,213) is a suburban city located about northwest of Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore sector of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the Autoroute des Laurentides.
The town is named after Saint Jerome (ca. 347 – September 30, 420), a Church Father best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. His translation is known as the Vulgate.
History
The territory where the present city of Saint-Jérôme now stands was granted in 1752 by the marquis de la Jonquière, governor of New France, as the seignory of Augmentation des Mille-Iles (literally "enlargement" of the seignory of Mille-Iles). From the 1760s to the 1840s, the seignory was owned by the Dumont and Lefebvre de Bellefeuille families, living in the town of Saint-Eustache, to the south. The Dumont and the Lefebvre conceded the farmland to colonists coming mostly from the region lying north of Montreal. The emerging town was then known under the name of Dumontville. The Catholic parish of Saint-Jérôme was constituted on November 15, 1834, and the village was constituted on July 1, 1845, by governor Metcalfe.Auclair, Elie-J., Saint-Jérôme de Terrebonne, Imprimerie J.H.A. Labelle, 1934, pages 13-35.
François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle, a Roman Catholic priest who was the great "colonizer" (promoter of settlement) of the North of Montreal, was in charge of the pastoral administration of Saint-Jérôme in 1868 until his death, in 1891. Eight years after his arrival, he had a railway built linking Saint-Jérôme and Montreal.
Antoine Labelle was the parish priest of Saint-Jérôme for 22 years, from 1868 until his death, at 57 years of age, on January 4, 1891. He was called "the king of North, the apostle of colonization".
The opening of roads and the arrival of a railway became essential with the development of the small communities in the Laurentians. These transportation routes for the movement of goods and people would ensure the establishment of trade and industry.
Labelle promoted the idea of a railway towards the North beginning in 1869. The railway reached Saint-Jérôme in 1876, partly because a railway was seen as a way to meet the needs for firewood and construction materials for urban centres like Montreal and Quebec.
In 2002, Saint-Jérôme was amalgamated with the municipalities of Bellefeuille (2006 census population 15,866), Saint-Antoine (2001 population 11,488) and Lafontaine (2001 population 9,477).
Saint-Jérôme is the seat of the judicial district of Terrebonne.Territorial Division Act. Revised Statutes of Quebec D-11.
Geography Climate Saint-Jérôme has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with warm, rainy summers and cold, snowy winters.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Saint-Jérôme 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.
Race and ethnicity In 2021, Saint-Jérôme was 91.8% White/European, 6.4% visible minorities and 1.8% Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups were Black (3.2%), Latin American (1.3%) and Arab (1.0%). Therefore, Saint-Jérôme is mostly made up of European descents. As of the 2021 census the racial make up of Saint-Jérôme is: Panethnic groups in the City of Saint-Jérôme (2001−2021)Panethnic group20212016201120062001 European 71,535 67,520 64,270 60,910 23,290 African 2,475 835 410 265 70 Indigenous 1,385 1,180 685 435 190 Latin American 1,005 740 570 495 15 Middle Eastern 785 410 125 80 30 Southeast Asian 260 195 50 95 0 East Asian 160 175 130 195 10 South Asian 95 140 180 35 20 Other/multiracial 190 45 95 50 10 Total responses 77,880 71,225 66,505 62,560 23,620 Total population 80,213 74,346 68,456 63,729 24,583
Religion 66.1% of residents were Christian in 2021, down from 88.1% in 2011. 59.0% were Catholic, 4.5% were Christian n.o.s, 0.5% were Protestant, and 2.0% belonged to other Christian denominations or Christian-related traditions. 31.3% of the population was non-religious or secular, up from 11.1% in 2011. Other religions and spiritual traditions accounted for 2.6% of the population, up from 0.8% in 2011. The largest non-Christian religion was Islam (1.9%). According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Saint-Jérôme included: Christianity (51,465 persons or 66.1%) Catholic (45,960 persons or 59.0%) Christian, not otherwise specified (3,495 persons or 4.5%) Other (1,985 persons or 2.5%) No religion and secular perspectives (24,215 persons or 31.3%) Islam (1,475 persons or 1.9%) Buddhism (180 persons or 0.2%) Judaism (35 persons or <0.1%) Hinduism (25 persons or <0.1%) Other (280 persons or 0.4%)
Language French is the mother tongue of 92.3% of the population. The next most common first languages are English (1.6%), Spanish (1.4%), and Arabic (0.7%). 1.2% of residents listed both French and English as mother tongues, while 0.6% listed both French and a non-official language.
Canada Census Mother Tongue - St-Jerome, QuebecStatistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 census Census Total Year Responses Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % 72,975 6.18% 92.3% 1,290 18.35% 1.6% 915 88.66% 1.2% 3,270 45.33% 4.1% 68,725 6.72% 92.4% 1,090 8.45% 1.5% 485 32.87% 0.7% 2,250 31.57% 3.0% 64,395 7.68% 95.2% 1,005 17.54% 1.6% 365 15.88% 0.5% 1,710 7.55% 2.5% 59,800 6.06% 95.6% 855 20.42% 1.4% 315 5.9% 0.5% 1,590 120.8% 2.5% 56,385 4.55% 97.0% 710 10.69% 1.2% 335 9.45% 0.6% 720 29.72% 1.2% 53,930 n/a 97.2% 795 n/a 1.4% 370 n/a 0.7% 555 n/a 1.0%
Mother Tongue Population Percentage French 72,975 92.3% English 1,290 1.6% English and French 915 1.2% French and a non-official language 440 0.6% English, French and a non-official language 90 0.1% English and a non-official language 70 0.1% Spanish 1,095 1.4% Arabic 535 0.7% Italian 130 0.2% Haitian Creole 115 0.1% Portuguese 105 0.1% Russian 100 0.1% Albanian 95 0.1% Romanian 90 0.1% Nepali 85 0.1% Mandarin 55 0.1% Kabyle 45 0.1% Greek 40 0.1% Swahili 40 0.1%
Economy Industry
Uniroyal, Dominion Rubber In 1911, the first rubber industry in Saint-Jérôme, shoe production In 1926, the industry is renamed Dominion Rubber. In the 1950s, 37,000 shoes were produced for all over the world. In 1966, the company is renamed UNIROYAL LTD. In 1968, the company changed its production for automobile parts, crashpad. In 1981, the company was sold to many cities like Woodbridge and Waterville. In 1994 the building was demolished.
Attractions
Roman Catholic cathedral, which includes a small museum Vieux-Palais modern art museum and public library Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides Statue of Antoine Labelle, known as curé Labelle, who was principally responsible for the settlement of the Laurentians Several summer festivals Carrefour du Nord, a regional shopping mall Melançon Arena, an indoor arena
Sports Saint-Jérôme hosted the Quebec Games in winter 1987, which enabled it, among other things, to add bleachers to the physical education and sports recreation centre (CREPS) at École polyvalente Saint-Jérôme, now the city's largest sports centre. In April 2007 and 2014, Saint-Jérôme hosted the Fred Page Cup championship, the junior hockey final for Eastern Canada, which brings together the champions of the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario, in addition to the host team. Since 2017, it has hosted the P'tit Train du Nord Marathon. Saint-Jérôme once had a semi-professional hockey team for a few seasons. The team was called the Pétroliers du Nord and was very popular with fans of high-calibre hockey, as well as rough play and fights. The city of Saint-Jérôme did not want to keep this team in its Rivière du Nord arena, so they moved to Laval. Now there is also a junior AAA hockey team, the Panthères de Saint-Jérôme. This team is often one of the powerhouses of the league and therefore attracts many spectators.
The Saint-Jérôme Panthers are a junior AAA hockey team that was founded in 1990–1991, when the Laval-Laurentides region hosted this franchise. Since then, the Panthers first played in Saint-Antoine before moving to the Melançon Arena and finally, in 2016, settling at the Rivière-du-Nord Arena, where they play today. Since December 2018, the Rivière-du-Nord Arena has been home to the Pétroliers du Nord team of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH). However, the team moved to the Colisée de Laval for the 2019–2020 season.
Built in 1952, the Melançon Arena has hosted a variety of events over the years, including wrestling and boxing galas, circus performances, motocross and skating competitions, as well as the exploits of the Saint-Jérôme Alouettes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Older residents will also remember the visits of the Quebec Remparts, with figures such as Guy Lafleur, Jacques Richard and André Savard, as well as the Quebec Games held in 1987. Mayor Marc Bourcier expressed his sadness at the closure, noting that, for reasons of safety and suitability for current and future needs, the municipality had no choice but to permanently close the building. Although the City of Saint-Jérôme secured the building's structure in 2022 to allow activities to continue temporarily, major repairs are still needed to bring the building up to standard, including repairs to the roof, which was severely damaged during a period of high winds in May 2022. The estimated cost of $10.5 million to maintain the integrity of the building, not including high operating costs, prompted the municipality to consider closure as the best option. According to Mr. Bourcier, a complete renovation to give the arena a new lease on life would require an investment of over $45 million. The City emphasised its duty to respect taxpayers' ability to pay and decided that closing the building was the most sensible decision at this time. The mayor pointed out that although the Melançon Arena had reached the end of its useful life, it had proudly served the people of Saint-Jérôme for 70 years.
The sports teams at Cégep de Saint-Jérôme, known as the Cheminots, are among the elite of college sports in Quebec. In particular, the AA women's hockey team dominated the league, winning the championship in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, before losing by one point to Dawson College in 2007. During this period, the team also won the Polar Bear Tournament, an international tournament held in Connecticut, United States, twice.
The Multisports Park is located at the end of Fillion Street and Ouimet Street, across from the Rivière-du-Nord Arena and near the École polyvalente Saint-Jérôme. In 2013, the first synthetic soccer and football fields were inaugurated.
Located at the end of Fillion Street, across from Multispors Park, the Rivière-du-Nord Arena was funded by the cities of Saint-Jérôme, Sainte-Sophie, and Prévost. Inaugurated on 27 February 2016, it has hosted the St-Jérôme Panthers hockey team since autumn 2016, as well as the Saint-Jérôme Lions, the municipality's junior team. The arena is managed by the Régie intermunicipale de l'aréna Rivière-du-Nord, which brings together the cities of Prévost, Sainte-Sophie and Saint-Jérôme.
Government The city council (in French: Conseil municipal de Saint-Jérôme) is the governing body of the city. The council consists of the mayor and 12 councillors.
Members as of 2025: Rémi Barbeau, mayor Éric Monette, District 1 councillor Pascal St-Onge, District 2 councillor Jacques Bouchard, District 3 councillor Joanie Mathieu, District 4 councillor Jessica Desrochers Lauzon, District 5 councillor Isabelle L’Heureux-Leblanc, District 6 councillor Sonia Goulet, District 7 councillor Marc-Antoine Lachance, District 8 councillor Paula Gonzalves, District 9 councillor Frédérik Clément, District 10 councillor Simon Marcil, District 11 councillor Marie-Claude Poitras, District 12 councillor