Rigaud, Quebec

Rigaud
Municipality
Location within Vaudreuil-Soulanges RCM
Rigaud Location in southern Quebec
Coordinates: 45°29′N 74°18′W / 45.483°N 74.300°W / 45.483; -74.300Coordinates: 45°29′N 74°18′W / 45.483°N 74.300°W / 45.483; -74.300[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Montérégie
RCM	Vaudreuil-Soulanges
Constituted	November 29, 1995
Government[2][3]
• Mayor	Hans Gruenwald Jr
• Federal riding	Vaudreuil-Soulanges
• Prov. riding	Soulanges
Area[2][4]
• Total	114.00 km2 (44.02 sq mi)
• Land	99.12 km2 (38.27 sq mi)
Population (2014)[4]
• Total	7,566
• Density	74.1/km2 (192/sq mi)
• Pop 2006-2011	8.3%
• Dwellings	3,254
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	J0P 1P0
Area code(s)	450 and 579
Highways A-40 (TCH)	Route 325 Route 342
Website	www.ville.rigaud.qc.ca

Rigaud (French pronunciation: ​[ʁigo]) is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada in the county of Vaudreuil-Soulanges in Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent region. The municipality is located at the junction of Ottawa River and Rigaud River. It is situated about 70 kilometres west of downtown Montreal and 130 kilometres east of Ottawa. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 7,346.

History

The town was named for Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, the last governor of New France.

Geography

Rigaud Bridge c. 1910

Rigaud is located at the northwestern part of the Suroît region, which is part of the Montérégie administrative region, on the Ontario-Quebec border. Across the Ottawa River lies the Laurentides region. Neighbouring municipalities are Hudson, Vaudreuil-Dorion (Hudson Acres), Sainte-Marthe, Très-Saint-Rédempteur, East Hawkesbury and Pointe-Fortune. The municipality located across Ottawa River is Saint-André-d'Argenteuil. The geographic location of Rigaud, at the head of the Ottawa River and then between the Montreal and Ottawa metropolitan areas, has contributed largely to its economic development throughout its history.

The land area of the municipality is 99 km². The relief is composed, on the North side, of the Ottawa River plain and, on the South side, of Mount Rigaud. The Ottawa River and Mount Rigaud are the main elements in the landscape. The plain is partly used for agricultural purposes and partly in bush. Mount Rigaud covers an area of 47 km². A lot of rock pieces scatter the woods all over the mountain. It is a moraine shaped by a glacier that, by moving, broke up from the bedrock of the Canadian Shield, fragments that it disaggregated and rounded by rolling over them, moving them and leaving them in this basin, some thousand years ago, at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation.

Demographics

Language

Canada Census Mother Tongue - Rigaud, Quebec[8]
Census		Total		French				English				French & English				Other
Year		Responses		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %
2011		7,260		5,615	9.7%	77.34%		1,225	5.6%	16.87%		125	127.3%	1.72%		295	9.3%	4.06%
2006		6,605		5,120	8.0%	77.52%		1,160	20.2%	17.56%		55	8.3%	0.83%		270	54.3%	4.09%
2001		5,940		4,740	1.4%	79.80%		965	14.2%	16.24%		60	14.3%	1.01%		175	16.7%	2.95%
1996		5,930		4,805	n/a	81.03%		845	n/a	14.25%		70	n/a	1.18%		210	n/a	3.54%

Attractions

Rigaud Mountain

Rigaud Mountain

The main attraction is Mont-Rigaud, a hill with downhill ski runs (at Ski Mont Rigaud), a private school (Collège Bourget), a monastery, and a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes). The mountain is also home to an unusual, natural rock garden known as the "champs de patates", so named because of the local legend that it was once a potato field, turned to stone by God because the farmer worked on Sunday. On the opposite side of the mountain is a residential community known as "Mountain Ranches." The middle to upper-middle class community features large, mostly secluded building lots in a wooded setting that draws residents because of its isolated tranquility and privacy. As such, it was the hiding place for fugitive Charlie Wilson, one of the leaders of the notorious 1963 Great train robbery in England.

This area was also known for its "tree farms" in the 1960s and 1970s, providing a tax shelter for the well off, until the tax laws were later changed to require harvesting of those "tree farms". The "Pitcairn Tree Farm", was one such example.

Also located in Rigaud is the training center for the Canada Border Services Agency.

The communities of Dragon and Rigaud are found within the municipality.

Transportation

The Rigaud station was the former terminus of the AMT commuter train to downtown Montreal.

On July 1, 2010, service to Rigaud was discontinued, as the town was unable to pay the $300,000 annual fee to the AMT to allow service to continue to the town. After that date, the rail line ends at Hudson.^[9]

The town is served by the 61 bus from the CIT La Presqu'Île.

Education

Commission Scolaire des Trois-Lacs operates Francophone schools.^[10]

• École de l'Épervière
• Some areas are served by École Sainte-Marthe in Sainte-Marthe^[11]

Lester B. Pearson School Board operates Anglophone schools.^[12]

• Soulanges Elementary School in Saint-Télesphore or Evergreen Elementary and Forest Hill Elementary (Junior Campus and Senior campus) in Saint-Lazare

See also

• List of municipalities in Quebec

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rigaud, Quebec.

• Surrounding area - Hudson, Quebec