Pointe-des-Cascades () is a

village municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality Vaudreuil-Soulanges () is a regional county municipality in Quebec, Canada. It is located on a triangular peninsula in the western Montérégie region of Quebec, formed by the confluence of the Ottawa River to the north, and the St. Lawrence Rive ...

in the

Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest part of Quebec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Longueuil, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. ...

region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on a spit of land where the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

flows into

Lake Saint-Louis Lake Saint-Louis (, ) is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake. Lake St. Louis is a widening of the St. Lawrence River in the Hochela ...

. The river has here a significant drop, forming several cascades which give the village its name. The islands of Île des Cascades and Île des Joybert are connected by a narrow causeway, but Île des Cascades and Pointe-des-Cascades are only connected artificially.

History

Starting in the mid-seventeenth century until 1700, many military expeditions arrived at this place in order to

portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

around the cascades on the Saint Lawrence River. The first reference to Pointe-des-Cascades appeared in a text of Louis-Armand de Lahontan in 1684 and on a map of Deshayes in 1695, when Pointe des Cascades was included in the Vaudreuil Lordship. In 1893, the post office opened under the English name Cascades Point (renamed in 1951 to Pointe-des-Cascades). A few years later construction began on the

Soulanges Canal The Soulanges Canal is an abandoned shipping canal in Quebec, Canada. It follows the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River between Pointe-des-Cascades and Coteaux-Landing, bypassing the rapids between Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Franc ...

and when it was completed in 1899, the village became the eastern, downstream terminus of the canal. In 1958, it closed when it was superseded by the new

Beauharnois Canal The Beauharnois Canal (, ) is located in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The canal is part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Located in Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality within the cities of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Beauharnois, S ...

. The paths along the canal are now used as a regional cycling route. In 1961, the Village Municipality of Pointe-des-Cascades was formed on the territory of the Parish Municipalities of Saint-Joseph-de-Soulanges (now

Les Cèdres The Jardin botanique "Les Cèdres" () (14 hectares), often called simply Les Cèdres or the Jardin de la villa "Les Cèdres", is a private botanical garden located at 57 Avenue Denis Séméria, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-A ...

) and Saint-Michel-de-Vaudreuil (now part of

Vaudreuil-Dorion Vaudreuil-Dorion () is a suburb of Greater Montreal, in the Montérégie region of southwestern Quebec, Canada. The result of the merger of two towns, Vaudreuil and Dorion, it is located in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality. ...

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Pointe-des-Cascades had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Local government

Pointe-des-Cascades forms part of the federal electoral district of Salaberry—Suroît and has been represented by

Claude DeBellefeuille Claude DeBellefeuille (born December 13, 1963) is a Canadian politician serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Salaberry—Suroît in Quebec since the 2019 federal election. A member of the Bloc Québécois (BQ), she pre ...

of the

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (, , BQ) is a centre-left politics, centre-left and list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism, Quebecois nationalism, social democracy, and the promotion o ...

since 2019. Provincially, Pointe-des-Cascades is part of the Soulanges electoral district and is represented by Marilyne Picard of the

Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec (, , CAQ) is a Quebec nationalism, Quebec nationalist, Autonomism in Quebec, autonomist and conservatism, conservative

since 2018. List of former mayors: * Joseph-Pierre-Amable Clément (1961–1968, 1971–1979) * Joseph-Bruno-Germain Vallée (1968–1971) * Joseph-Thomas-Ronald-Maurice Hayes (1979–2005) * Francis Masse (2005–2007) * Jean-Pierre Dupont (2007–2008) * Maryse Morin Sauvé (2008–2013) * Gilles Santerre (2013–2020) * Pierre Lalonde (interim 2020) * Peter Zytynsky (2021–present)

Education

Commission Scolaire des Trois-Lacs operates Francophone schools.

Lester B. Pearson School Board The Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB, , CSLBP) is one of the largest school boards on the island of Montreal and one of the nine English school boards in the province of Quebec. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec. Established in 1998, ...

operates Anglophone schools. It is zoned to Birchwood Elementary School in Saint-Lazare and St. Patrick Elementary School in

Pincourt Pincourt () is a municipality on the island of Île Perrot, off the western tip of the island of Montreal, Quebec. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 14,751. The town shares the island with the three other municipalities of Notre ...

.School Board Map
."

. Retrieved on September 28, 2017.

References

External links

{{Greater Montreal Villages in Quebec Incorporated places in Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality Quebec populated places on the Saint Lawrence River Greater Montreal