| Coteau-du-Lac | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Southern Quebec |
| Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in southern Quebec |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Montérégie |
| Subdivision Type3: | RCM |
| Subdivision Name3: | Vaudreuil-Soulanges |
| Established Title1: | Constituted |
| Established Date1: | 6 February 1982 |
| Government Footnotes: | [1] [2] |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Andrée Brosseau |
| Leader Title1: | Federal riding |
| Leader Name1: | Salaberry—Suroît |
| Leader Title2: | Prov. riding |
| Leader Name2: | Soulanges |
| Area Total Km2: | 57.20 |
| Area Land Km2: | 46.89 |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Total: | 7044 |
| Population Density Km2: | 150.2 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Pop 2011-2016 |
| Population Blank1: | 3.0% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 2743 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code(s) |
| Postal Code: | J0P |
| Area Code: | 450 and 579 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank Info: | |
Coteau-du-Lac (pronounced as /fr/) is a small city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality.
The name of the town comes from the French word coteau which means "slope" and from its location on the north shore of Lake Saint Francis.[3] The National Historic Site of Canada of the Coteau-du-Lac canal is the location of the first canal lock system in North America. The city has an industrial park.
The population was 7,044 as of the 2016 Canadian Census.
The place was mentioned in 1687 by Marquis de Denonville. His record stated that " du Lac is a place where one stopped on the way to the Rapides d'en Haut", referring to a small hillside (French: coteau) on the north side of the St. Lawrence River near the mouth of Lake Saint Francis (French: lac Saint-François).
In 1779, the Coteau-du-Lac canal was constructed to bypass the numerous rapids between Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Francis. Two years later, a military detachment was stationed there. In 1789, its post office opened under the name Coteau-du-Lac.
During the War of 1812, a fort was built to protect the canal. In 1832, the Parish of Saint-Ignace was created. The following year, the parish was civilly established under the name "Saint Ignace du Côteau du Lac". In 1845, it was formed into a municipality, but abolished in 1847. In 1855, it was reestablished as the Parish Municipality of Saint-Ignace-du-Côteau-du-Lac.
In 1907, the Village Municipality of Côteau-du-Lac was formed out of Saint-Ignace-du-Côteau-du-Lac (orthography was later changed to "Coteau" without circumflex). These two entities merged again on 6 February 1982, to form the Municipality of Coteau-du-Lac, which changed statutes in 2007 to become a city.[4]
In mid-2013, around 120 people were temporarily evacuated, and two people died after an explosion in the local fireworks factory.[5]
In early April 2023, 3,672 people lost electric power for up to several days as the result of a massive power outage caused by an extended period of freezing rain in the region.[6]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Coteau-du-Lac had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 46.87km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[7]
| Canada Census Mother Tongue – Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec[8] | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | ||||||
| 6,495 | 2.3% | 92.6% | 315 | 31.3% | 4.5% | 75 | 36.4% | 1.1% | 125 | 60.0% | 1.8% | ||||||||
| 6,350 | 6.5% | 94.5% | 240 | 71.4% | 3.6% | 55 | 22.2% | 0.8% | 75 | 16.7% | 1.1% | ||||||||
| 5,960 | 14.2% | 95.6% | 140 | 17.6% | 2.3% | 45 | 28.6% | 0.7% | 90 | 200.0% | 1.4% | ||||||||
| 5,220 | 11.2% | 95.7% | 170 | 28.6% | 3.1% | 35 | 0.0% | 0.6% | 30 | 0.0% | 0.6% | ||||||||
| 4,695 | n/a | 95.9% | 135 | n/a | 2.8% | 35 | n/a | 0.7% | 30 | n/a | 0.6% | ||||||||
| Note: Percentages may not equal 100% due to multiple responses and rounding. | |||||||||||||||||||
List of former mayors (since formation of current municipality):[9]
Commission Scolaire des Trois-Lacs operates Francophone schools.[10]
Lester B. Pearson School Board operates Anglophone schools.[11]