Bordered by Ontario on the west and south, by the Nord-du-Québec region on the north and by the Mauricie and Outaouais regions on the east, Abitibi-Témiscamingue has an area of 65,000 km2. The territory’s population is 145,000 for a density of 2.5 inhabitants per km². For comparison, the Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension arrondissement in Montreal has a density of 9000 people per km² for an equivalent population!

Like Five Fingers on a Hand

Abitibi-Témiscamingue is divided into five Regional County Municipalities (MRC): Abitibi, Abitibi-Ouest, Rouyn-Noranda, Témiscamingue and Vallée-de-l'Or. Each one has a county town where most services are available. They are: Amos (12,600 inhabitants), La Sarre (7,400 inhabitants), Rouyn-Noranda (39,500 inhabitants), Ville-Marie (2,700 inhabitants) and Val-d'Or (32,100 inhabitants). In Rouyn-Noranda are found most of the regional offices of the different government departments as well as the Cégep (college) and University campuses. The Vallée-de-l'Or MRC includes three main urban areas (Val-d'Or, Malartic and Senneterre) characterised by industrial activities, mostly mining, and the linkages with the Nord-du-Québec region. The Abitibi, Abitibi-Ouest and Témiscamingue MRC’s each have a constellation of rural communities around a strong service pole; agriculture is predominant although the service sector is the one providing a majority of jobs in this part of the region.

What About the Weather?

Temperature varies from an average of -18° Celsius in January to 20° Celsius in July, with peaks nearing 35°. Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a northern region? Actually, Rouyn-Noranda is located slightly more to the south than Rimouski, Vancouver, London, Paris and Berlin. Winters are cold and dry while summers are generally warm and dry. So we don’t have to bear with slush and humid cold weather that penetrates through clothing, nor with nights so hot that you can almost hear the pavement boil. An interesting fact: there is a slight difference between the Témiscamingue and Abitibi weather conditions. The same difference exists for vegetation and forests, which occupies 85 % of the region’s total area: it varies from mixed forest in the south to boreal forest in the north. But everywhere on the land, agricultural conditions are excellent in terms of soil quality and sunlight.

Cristal Clear Water

It is surprising to see how events that took place some 10 thousand years ago are still spilling into the present… Indeed, at the end of the last ice age, huge retreating ice sheets shaped the regional territory, while rocky summits were scraped and eroded, and rocky debris were carried by meltwater torrents flowing under the glacier, thus allowing for the formation of the eskers. Purified through these exceptional natural filters, the water of Abitibi-Témiscamingue is held as one of the best in the world, as demonstrated by the many international prizes awarded to Amos, Barraute and Senneterre for their municipal water quality. Furthermore, the suspended sediments in the proglacial lakes (of which the Abitibi and Témiscamingue lakes are remnants) have formed a thick layer of clay that makes the soil rich and fertile. Securely sitting at the height of land, the region is drained on the south by the Outaouais River watershed, and on the north side, the waters flow into James Bay and Hudson Bay.

Buried Treasures

“Moé j'viens d'un pays qui a un ventre en or” (I’m from a country with a golden belly), sings Raôul Duguay, a Val-d'Or native, in his song La Bitt à Tibi. And he’s right: the region’s bedrock is one of the richest in Canada with copper, gold, nickel, silver and zinc, as well as lithium and uranium. The biggest concentration of metals is found in the Cadillac Fault, a geological formation connecting Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d'Or on the Québec side, and along which several tens of mines have been or are still in operation.

In other words, the Abitibi-Témiscamingue people are like the nature that surrounds them: they are generous, resourceful, energetic, they can overcome many challenges, and above all they know how to welcome newcomers in their region.