Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality

Regional county municipality in Quebec, Canada

46°30′N 72°25′W / 46.500°N 72.417°W / 46.500; -72.417^[1]Country

CanadaProvince

QuebecRegionMauricieEffectiveJanuary 1, 2002County seatSaint-Luc-de-VincennesGovernment

^[2]

• TypePrefecture • PrefectGérard BruneauArea

^[2]^[3]^[4]

• Total934.40 km² (360.77 sq mi) • Land872.04 km² (336.70 sq mi)Population

(2011)^[3]^[4]

• Total17,865 • Density20.5/km² (53/sq mi) • Pop 2006-2011

5.2% • Dwellings

8,393Time zoneUTC−5 (EST) • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)Area code(s)819, 418 or 581Websitewww.mrcdeschenaux.ca

Les Chenaux (meaning the channels in French) is a regional county municipality in central Quebec, Canada, in the Mauricie region. The seat is in Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes. It is located adjacent on the east of Trois-Rivières on the Saint Lawrence River. It has a land area of 872.04 square kilometres (336.70 sq mi) and a population of 17,865 inhabitants in the Canada 2011 Census.^[4] Its largest community is the parish of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel.

Les Chenaux is one of the few regional county municipalities in Quebec that does not constitute its own census division; instead, it is grouped with Trois-Rivières as the single census division of Francheville.

Geography

The "Les Chenaux" RCM is an area east of Trois-Rivières, located between the villages of Champlain and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade on north shore of St. Lawrence River. The MRC is approximately 40 km in length to about 20 kilometers in depth. The territory is crossed by three rivers flowing from north to south: Champlain River, Batiscan River and Sainte-Anne River.

History

The RCM was created in 2002, when the area was realigned to make way for the amalgamations of nearby Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan. All of the municipalities, except for Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel (which came from Centre-de-la-Mauricie RCM), used to belong to the former Francheville Regional County Municipality. This RCM was dissolved when six of its municipalities amalgamated with the city of Trois-Rivières, and Saint-Étienne-des-Grès was added to the Maskinongé RCM. The remaining municipalities were grouped into a new regional county called Les Chenaux.

Subdivisions

There are 10 subdivisions within the RCM:^[2]

Municipalities (6)

Parishes (4)

Demography

**Municipalities of "Les Chenaux" RCM**
Municipality	Status	Area	Population (2006)	Density
Batiscan	Municipality	44,02 km²	937 hab.	21,3 inhabitants/km²
Champlain	Municipality	58,59 km²	1 583 hab.	27,0 inhabitants/km²
Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel	Municipality of parish	126,61 km²	5 300 hab.	41,9 inhabitants/km²
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade	Municipality	107,94 km²	2 145 hab.	19,9 inhabitants/km²
Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan	Municipality of parish	97,09 km²	1 125 hab.	11,6 inhabitants/km²
Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes	Municipality	52,73 km²	613 hab.	11,6 inhabitants/km²
Saint-Maurice	Municipality of parish	90,33 km²	2 308 hab.	25,6 inhabitants/km²
Saint-Narcisse	Municipality of parish	103,49 km²	1 852 hab.	17,9 inhabitants/km²
Saint-Prosper	Municipality	92.03 km²	555 hab.	6.0 inhabitants/km²
Saint-Stanislas	Municipality	86,37 km²	1 077 hab.	12,5 inhabitants/km²
Total		859,20 km²	17 495 hab.	20,4 inhabitants/km²

Transportation

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the municipality, including external routes that start or finish at the county border:^[5]

Autoroutes
- A-40

Principal Highways
- R-138
- R-157
- R-159

Secondary Highways
- R-352
- R-354
- R-359
- R-361
- R-209

External Routes
- None

Photos

Land of running water and countless lakes
Batiscan, Slipway, commercial fisherman, St. Lawrence River
Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan, the Rivière à Veillet flows into the Batiscan
Saint-Narcisse, Lac-à-la-Tortue bog
Saint-Maurice (Quebec), Au Lard River, agricultural zone
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Ste-Anne river, the installation of the winter fishing village
Saint-Prosper-de-Champlain, rivière Charest, tributary of the Sainte-Anne River
Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Rivière Cachée
Champlain, Champlain River near its mouth
Saint-Stanislas, Batiscan River, Parish church, presbytery, municipality

References

^ "Banque de noms de lieux du Québec: Reference number 375747". toponymie.gouv.qc.ca (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Répertoire des municipalités: Geographic code 372". www.mamh.gouv.qc.ca (in French). Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l'Habitation.
^ ^a ^b 2011 Statistics Canada Census Profile: Francheville (Stats include City of Trois-Rivières figures)
^ ^a ^b ^c Derived indirectly by subtracting the data for Trois-Rivières census subdivision from the data for Francheville census division (view side-by-side).
^ Official Transport Quebec Road Map