Montreal East (French: Montréal-Est) is an on-island suburb in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the island of Montreal. Montreal-Est has been home to many large oil refineries since 1915.
The formation of Montréal-Est as a municipality was initiated in 1910 by businessman Joseph Versailles, who had bought 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi) of land there. The town was incorporated on 4 June 1910 under the name Montreal East, when it separated from Pointe-aux-Trembles and Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rivière-des-Prairies. Versailles was mayor of the town until his death in 1931.[1][5]
On January 1, 2002, as part of the 2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, it was merged into the City of Montreal and became part of the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles–Montréal-Est. After a change of government and a 2004 referendum, it was the only community in the eastern half of the Island of Montreal that de-merged, and it was re-constituted as a city on January 1, 2006.
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Montréal-Est had a population of 4,394 living in 2,018 of its 2,124 total private dwellings, a change of 14.1% from its 2016 population of 3,850. With a land area of 12.15 km2 (4.69 sq mi), it had a population density of 361.6/km2 (936.7/sq mi) in 2021.[6]
There are three refineries that make up the majority of the Montreal Oil Refining Centre:
Total production: 386,000 bpd
Montréal-Est forms part of the federal electoral district of La Pointe-de-l'Île and has been represented by Mario Beaulieu of the Bloc Québécois since 2015. Provincially, Montréal-Est is part of the Pointe-aux-Trembles electoral district and is represented by Chantal Rouleau of the Coalition Avenir Québec since 2018.
List of former mayors:[11]
The Dufresne-Nincheri Museum, a historic building in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, has the mission to preserve, study, and influence the history and heritage of Montréal-Est (East Montreal). It was originally named the Château Dufresne Museum.
Montréal-Est is served by Notre-Dame Street and Sherbrooke Street, which run east-west through large portions of the Island of Montreal.
Montréal-Est joined Westmount as the only Montreal island municipalities to refuse to adopt the name of Boulevard René-Lévesque for their portion of the major east-west street, Dorchester. To this day, the street is called Rue Dorchester in Montréal-Est.[12] It also preserves a section of Rue de Montigny, which has otherwise been replaced by Boulevard de Maisonneuve apart from one block downtown. Rue Sainte-Catherine and Rue Ontario also reappear in Montréal-Est, far away from their main downtown sections.
North-south streets in the city include Avenue Georges-V and Avenue Marien.
The city is served by two school boards. The French schools are part of the Commission scolaire Pointe-de-l'Ile while the English schools are part of the English Montreal School Board.
Francophone schools:
Media related to Montréal-Est at Wikimedia Commons