Hérouxville

Hérouxville (formerly called Saint-Timothée d'Hérouxville) is a parish municipality in the Mékinac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Mauricie, in the province of Quebec, Canada.[2] Its watershed is mainly part of the Batiscanie.

Hérouxville
Parish municipality
Turtle River, South St-Pierre row
Turtle River, South St-Pierre row
Location within Mékinac RCM
Location within Mékinac RCM
Hérouxville is located in Central Quebec
Hérouxville
Hérouxville
Location in central Quebec
Coordinates: 46°40′N 72°37′W[1]
Country Canada
Province Quebec
RegionMauricie
RCMMékinac
Founded1897 (1897)
ConstitutedApril 13, 1904 (1904-04-13)
Named forJoseph-Euchariste Héroux
Government
 • MayorBernard Thompson
 • Federal ridingSaint-Maurice—Champlain
 • Prov. ridingLaviolette
Area
[2][3]
 • Total53.03 km2 (20.47 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[3]
 • Total1,340
 • Density25.3/km2 (66/sq mi)
 • Pop 2006-2011
Increase 8.5%
 • Dwellings
650
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)
G0X 1J0
Area code(s)418 and 581
Highways R-153
Websitewww.municipalite
.herouxville.qc.ca
St-Timotée Hérouxville parrish church

Hérouxville is directly on the route to Saint-Tite and the Festival western de Saint-Tite, in addition to being the northeast gateway to Mauricie, a region renowned for its lush forests and quaint villages.

Hérouxville is small rural farming parish. Its main economic activity is agriculture; forestry and recreational tourism are part of the local economy. Hérouxville also offers its visitors throughout the year the facilities and services of:

According to the revised development plan of the Mékinac Regional County Municipality, effective February 27, 2008, Hérouxville had 104 chalets, 22 farms operating in 1685 hectares under cultivation, 13 shops/services and 3 industrial facilities.[4]

Since 2007 the name of Hérouxville has been known in the lexicon of Quebec as shorthand for intolerance, after the town's councillors instituted a "code of conduct" for an immigrant population which did not exist, in a move which was widely perceived as xenophobic and racist.[5][6]

Geography

The village is crossed by Route 153 between the municipalities of Saint-Tite on the east and Shawinigan on the southwest. Hérouxville is 9.6 km from the center of Saint-Tite and 13.3 km from Grand-Mère.

Hérouxville is the gateway to the northeastern part of the Mauricie, a corner known for its forests and small towns. A farming village, this place offers its visitors the Laurentian Forest, with its lakes and rivers.

The town centre is in the style of the seigneurial period: Rang Saint-Pierre, as Main Street, where the houses are never really distanced but deep soil. Its tallest building is the church Saint-Timothée.

The municipality of Hérouxville extends around the northern part of Lac-à-la-Tortue, while the municipality of Lac-à-la-Tortue administered the rest of the lake and surrounding area. In 2001, the municipality of Lac-à-la-Tortue merged with the city of Shawinigan.

The lake, which is surrounded by cottages and residences, includes the first seaplane base in the civil history of Canada. Airmen arrived there in 1919, inaugurating the first commercial flight of Canadian history, immediately after the end of the World War I. Originally, the aviation of Lac-à-la-Tortue used to monitor forest fires. Gradually, the seaplane base has developed a large tourist resort and for hunting and fishing stays in the northern regions.

Watershed

Despite its proximity to the Saint-Maurice River, the territory of Hérouxville is drained by three sub-basins:

Thus, the territory of Hérouxville is mainly part of the watershed of the Rivière des Envies, a tributary of the Batiscan River.

Wetland

A sector of wetland covering three municipalities is southeast of Lac-à-la-Tortue, head of water between the watershed of Lac-à-la-Tortue (including the outlet of Lake Atocas), the rivière à la Tortue and Rivière des Chutes:

  1. Row "Cote Saint-Pierre Coté Sud-Ouest", a few lands in southeast of Hérouxville and a dozen lands of Saint-Narcisse;
  2. Row "Cote Saint-Pierre Coté Northeast" in Saint-Narcisse, a few limited and isolated wetlands covering about 14 lots (near the road linking the Lac-à-la-Tortue and Saint-Narcisse);
  3. Row X 's in Hérouxville, some isolated areas at the southeast of the row, spread on eight lots;
  4. Row IX Lac-à-la-Tortue in Radnor Township, three lots (near the limit of Hérouxville);
  5. Forefront of Radnor in Saint-Narcisse, north-east area of the row, is the head area of the Rivière des Chutes.[7]

Toponymy

The name "Saint-Timothé" was assigned to this Catholic mission, as Tite, Thècle and Timothé were disciples of St. Paul in the first century. The origin of the name "Hérouxville" was a nod of respect to Father Joseph-Euchariste Héroux (1863-1943), founder of this Catholic parish. He exercised his priestly work from 1897 to 1899 in the mission of Saint-Timothé. He opened the civil registers. Through his work, he contributed to the canonical constitution of the parish of Saint-Timothée, on September 15, 1903.

Founded in 1898, the post office in the village was named "Saint-Timothé d'Hérouxville", to pay tribute to Father Héroux. The civil erection of the municipality, as of 13 April 1904, was formalized by publication in the official gazette of Quebec, confirming the name of "Municipality of the Parish of Saint-Timothé". Historically, in popular usage, the terms "Saint-Timothé" and "Hérouxville" were often juxtaposed to designate the town, the village, the station, the post office, the municipality, the school board, etc. This double appellation proved confusing in the public mind. The spelling "Timothée" varied according to the authors or sources: Thimothée, Thimothé, Timothé, etc. In addition, two areas of Montérégie (QC) use the toponym Saint-Timothée, creating occasional errors for deliveries.

To avoid these toponymic confusions, the municipality adopted in 1983 the designation "Saint-Timothé de Hérouxville". The "Commission de toponymie du Québec" (Geographical Names Board of Québec) formalized the toponym "Hérouxville" on January 9, 1986.[8]

Photos

The Mauricie's major rivers Saint-Maurice, Batiscan, Sainte-Anne (Les Chenaux) and their tributaries cross the territory of Mékinac RCM

History

The proximity of Hérouxville with the Saint-Maurice River had a major impact on its economic development from 1850 to the end of the nineteenth century. The first steamboat arrived in batteries to 1853–54. Completed in 1880, the railway from Trois-Rivières reached Grandes-Piles (Saint-Jacques-des-Piles), causing a rush in forestry industry up to the Haute-Mauricie (Upper-Mauricie) area. The construction of the railway to Lake Saint-Jean, then the Transcontinental Railway, and the harnessing of Shawinigan Falls and Grand-Mère (Grand Mother) Falls by hydroelectric dams changed the region. Then batteries were no longer the same economic utility as the site of transhipment between steamship of the Saint-Maurice River and trains.[9]

The village was founded in 1897 by Father Joseph Euchariste Héroux and became the Catholic parish of Saint Timothy as of September 15, 1903. The church was built in 1904 according to the plans designed by architect Charles Lafond. While the civil foundation was recognized April 13, 1904.

Agriculture has played an important role in the history of Hérouxville, including providing supplies for missions and projects of the St-Maurice Valley.

Code of conduct

Hérouxville received international attention in January 2007 when its town council passed controversial measures concerning practices which the residents deemed unsuitable for life in Hérouxville for potential new immigrants, despite the fact that the town has no immigrant population.[10] Hérouxville has a population of about 1,300 residents who are entirely White, francophone, and nominally Catholic.

The mayor and the municipal council approved a code of behavior for immigrants, which occurred in the context of a debate on "reasonable accommodation" for other cultures in Quebec.[11][12][13] The code forbade carrying a weapon to school (even if symbolic), covering one's face, and indicated that accommodation of prayer in school will not be permitted.[14] It also stated that stoning women or burning them alive is prohibited, as is female genital cutting. It attests that "Our people eat to nourish the body, not the soul" and that health-care professionals "do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions."

The code was widely criticized as being premised on racist and insulting cultural stereotypes.[15] The Montreal Gazette noted that "while the values espoused might be universal, the code has sparked an international controversy because the intention appears to be to scare off newcomers with a code that presumes the worst of them."[16]

Quebec Premier Jean Charest called Hérouxville's measures "exaggerated" after town councillor André Drouin appeared on a popular Quebec television show called Tout le monde en parle and said the reasonable accommodation situation had reached a state of emergency in Quebec.[17] The town later revised the standards after a delegation of Muslim women from the Canadian Islamic Congress came to meet townspeople.[18]

La Presse columnist Alain Dubuc writes that

Although Hérouxville's reaction was xenophobic, immigrants may not be the main target of this revolt ... There is something else at work here, and it's the revolt against the big city, its ideas, its lifestyle, its influence. What happened in Hérouxville is the ultimate expression of the fracture between the metropolis and the regions ... Hérouxville was angered by the tolerance of Montrealers, by their passivity towards the changes brought out by immigration, by their multi-ethnic culture, their rejection of religion, their 'gay village' and their arrogant elites. For small towns such as Hérouxville, the real threat to their identity has little to do with veil-clad Muslim women, it is the urban world that is gradually drifting away from the traditional model.

In a 2011 documentary, former mayor André Drouin claimed that the creation of the code was a "joke" designed to "provoke" the population in order to make things change.[19]

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Hérouxville had a population of 1,367 living in 626 of its 685 total private dwellings, a change of 7% from its 2016 population of 1,278. With a land area of 54.72 km2 (21.13 sq mi), it had a population density of 25.0/km2 (64.7/sq mi) in 2021.[20]

Population trend:[21]

YearPopulationVariation (%)Median age
20161,278Decrease 4.6%49.9 years
20111,340Increase 8.5%48.9 years
20061,235Decrease 3.1%
20011,275Decrease 3.0%
19961,314Increase 4.9%
19911,253

Mother tongue:

  • English as first language: 1.2%
  • French as first language: 98.8%
  • English and French as first language: 0%
  • Other as first language: 0%

Note: According to the federal census of 2006, 260 inhabitants of Hérouxville have some knowledge of French and English.

Publications on the history of Hérouxville
  • Tavibois, 1951-2009: l'héritage d'Albert Tessier aux Filles de Jésus (The Legacy of Albert Tessier to the Daughters of Jesus). Author: René Hardy, 1943, Édition Septentrion, printing 2010. (in French)
  • Anecdotes et confidences, de 79 hérouxvillois(es) à travers les ans (Trivia and confidences, 79 hérouxvillois (es) through the years). (in French)
  • De fil en famille — cent ans de l'histoire de Hérouxville (Wire family - one hundred years of history Hérouxville). Author: Solange Fernet-Gervais, in collaboration with the Société d'histoire de Hérouxville (Historical Society of Hérouxville). Editor: Scribe, 1997. (in French)
  • Hérouxville se raconte (Hérouxville tells) - transcripts of interviews, Solange Beaudoin ... et al.; editing and coordination, Jacques F.. Veillette; research and blurbs chapters, Solange Fernet-Gervais, for the "Société d'histoire de Hérouxville" (Historical Society of Hérouxville). Éditor: Éditions D'hier à demain (Shawinigan), printed in 2004, 300 pages; ill., map, portr.; 28 cm. (in French)

Directories about registry
  • Répertoire des baptêmes, marriages et sépultures de la paroisse de Saint-Timothée d'Hérouxville, 1897-1999 (Directory of baptisms, marriages and burials of the parish of St. Timothy Hérouxville, 1897–1999), Société d'histoire de Hérouxville (Historical Society of Hérouxville), printed in 2000.(in French)
  • Répertoire des mariages de la paroisse de Saint-Timothée d'Hérouxville 1898–1980, Hérouxville, edited by the "Fabrique de Saint-Timothé d'Hérouxville" (Fabric of Saint-Timothé d'Hérouxville), 1982.(in French)
  • Mariages de St-Séverin-de-Proulxville, 1889–1984, St-Timothée-de-Hérouxville, 1898–1981, St-Jacques-des-Piles, Grandes-Piles, 1885–1985, St-Jean-des-Piles, 1898–1980, St-Joseph-de-Mékinac, 1895–1985, St-Roch-de-Mékinac, 1904–1981, St-Théodore-de-la-Grande-Anse, 1904–1929. Crête, Georges, Ste-Foy, G. Crête, 1987.(in French)

See also

Notes and references
  1. "Reference number 133615 in Banque de noms de lieux du Québec". toponymie.gouv.qc.ca (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec.
  2. Quebec Gouvernment (8 January 2011). "Répertoire des municipalités: Hérouxville" (in French). Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire (Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy). Archived from the original on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  3. Statistics Canada 2011 Census - Hérouxville census profile
  4. Revised development plan of the Mékinac Regional County Municipality (Schéma d'aménagement révisé de la MRC de Mékinac), effective February 27, 2008, statistics on Hérouxville.
  5. "What we can learn from Hérouxville, the Quebec town that became shorthand for intolerance".
  6. Lagacé, Patrick (2022-04-27). "La fausse bonne idée de Gregory". La Presse (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-30.
  7. Research done on Septembre 2013 by historian Gaétan Veillette (Saint-Hubert, QC), using maps published by Service de la cartographie du Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, of Gouvernement du Québec. Maps dated as of: 1989-06-12.
  8. "Names and places of Quebec", the work of the "Commission de toponymie du Québec" (Geographical Names Board of Quebec), published in 1994 and 1996 in the form of a dictionary illustrated printed, and as a CD-ROM made by Micro-Intel in 1997 from the dictionary.
  9. Jean-Marc Beaudoin, Journal Le Nouvelliste (Quebec), articles published in French as of November 30, 1983, "L'épopée glorieuse des vapeurs des Piles (The glorious epic of vapors Piles); and article published in French as of January 7, 1984, "Voyage sur la Saint-Maurice en 1884" (Journey on the Saint-Maurice in 1884).
  10. "The town of Herouxville, Que., wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens". Archived from the original on 2007-02-02.
  11. Herouxville wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine, National Post, January 29, 2007
  12. Strict code of behaviour for immigrants Archived 2007-02-08 at the Wayback Machine, Radio-Canada, January 2007
  13. Il est interdit de lapider les femmes !, Cyberpresse, 26 janvier 2007
  14. Retract xenophobic 'standards,' Quebec town asked, Globe and Mail
  15. ["CTV.ca | Critics: Quebec town's conduct code 'xenophobic'". 29 January 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2007-02-06. Critics: Quebec town's conduct code 'xenophobic'[, CTV.ca, Jan. 29 2007
  16. RENE BRUEMMER AND KEVIN DOUGHERTY, "Herouxville: Cause Celebre Archived 2008-01-21 at the Wayback Machine," The Gazette (February 02 2007).
  17. Charest loses patience with debate over accommodating immigrants, Canoe, February 5, 2007
  18. "Hérouxville drops some rules from controversial code". CBC News. February 13, 2007.
  19. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Justice et faits divers-. "Le Code d'Hérouxville n'était qu'une blague". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  20. "Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), Quebec". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  21. Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 census
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