There are two urban area population centres within the city limits: Baie-Comeau proper, with a population of 9,100, and Hauterive, with a population of 11,147, as of the 2021 Canadian Census.[5]
The city is named after the adjacent Comeau Bay, which is named in honour of Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau, a Québécois naturalist.[2]
The oldest part of Baie-Comeau is the area known as Vieux-Poste (Old Post) near the mouth of the Amédée River where in 1889, the Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan Mission was founded by Eudists. In 1898, the first sawmill in the Côte-Nord region was built there by the brothers Damase and Henri Jalbert, but it closed in 1907 after their timber stock was swept into the St. Lawrence. In 1916, Route 138 was extended to Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan and in 1929, its post office opened with the English name of Comeau Bay (Gallicized in 1936).[2][8]
Baie-Comeau itself (the eastern part of the current town) was founded in 1936 when a paper mill was constructed by Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Arthur A. Schmon oversaw the project, which included a power station and housing. Experiencing remarkable growth, the Town of Baie-Comeau was incorporated the following year. The area continued to see economic development with the establishment of the hydro-electric power stations on the Manicouagan and Outardes Rivers beginning with the Chutes-aux-Outardes Station in 1952, an aluminum smelter in 1958, and grain warehouses (the largest in Canada) in 1959.[2][8]
In 1950, the village of Saint-Eugène-de-Manicouagan was incorporated as the Municipality of Hauterive. In June 1982, Hauterive was merged into Baie-Comeau, taking effect on January 1, 1983.[2][8]
Baie-Comeau is the seat of the judicial district of Baie-Comeau.[9]
[10][11][12][13][14][4] The population figure for 1981 has been adjusted to reflect the 1983 amalgamation.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Baie-Comeau had a population of 20,687 living in 9,554 of its 10,163 total private dwellings, a change of -3.9% from its 2016 population of 21,536. With a land area of 334.83 km2 (129.28 sq mi), it had a population density of 61.8/km2 (160.0/sq mi) in 2021.[15]
The region is a major forestry centre for the pulp and paper industry, owned by Abitibi Consolidated as of October 2006. Alongside hydro-electricity and the paper industry, an aluminum plant has fed employment for decades. Cargill has a large elevator there that is used to transfer grain from Great Lakes boats to ocean-going ships.
The Baie-Comeau city council consists of the mayor of Baie-Comeau and eight elected city councillors, four from each of the two sectors of town. The most recent mayor of Baie-Comeau was Yves Montigny, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2022 Quebec general election; Michel Desbiens became mayor in 2023
Although at the same latitude as Vancouver or Paris, Baie-Comeau has a borderline humid continental climate (KöppenDfb), just above the subarctic climate. The cold Labrador Current makes the Gulf of St. Lawrence very cold and tends to cool the weather during summer much more than the marginal warming of the winters resulting from its maritime location. With the moist northeasterly winds coming in from the Icelandic Low, snowfall is very heavy, averaging around 342.9 cm (135.00 in) per year with a greatest average depth of around 56 cm (22 in) in March. The extreme snow depth was 226 cm (89 in) on January 10, 1969.
The Centre de ski du Mont-Tibasse is an alpine ski centre located a few kilometers north of the town where it offers twelve slopes. Cross-country skiing is also popular. Students often frequent Mont-Tibasse as part of their school programs.
Golf
An 18-hole golf course is available in the western sector of the town. It is a semi-private golf club and is open for most of the summer.
Swimming
The two major high schools of the city each offer an indoor swimming pool and are open to the public year-round. Two outdoor swimming pools are also available to the public. These are open from the end of June until the middle of August each summer.
Some beaches are also available in the summer. There are other beaches are along the shore of the St. Lawrence river such as the Plage Champlain and the Plage Pointe-Lebel, among others.
Tennis
Several outdoor tennis courts are available to the public in the different parks across town. They are open for most of the summer.
Football
The Baie-Comeau Vikings represent the Polyvalente des Baies in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean League. The team won championships in the eastern Quebec circuit in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and were finalists in 2005.
^ ab"Baie-Comeau". Répertoire des municipalités (in French). Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire. Archived from the original on 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
Lloyd Duhaime (1986). Les Éditions Nordiques (ed.). De puissance comblée: Baie-Comeau : 50 ans d'histoire (in French). Éditions Nordiques. p. 192. ISBN2-9800519-1-8.
Chênevert, Marie-ève; Pellerin, Catherine; Landry, Pierre-Philippe (2012). Société Historique de la Côte-Nord (ed.). Baie-Comeau au fil du temps, 1937-2012 (in French). Baie-Comeau. p. 208. ISBN978-2-921931-08-3. BC2012.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Paul-Émile Jean (1998). Éditions Jean (ed.). Baie-Comeau: du Mont Sec à la rivière Amédée 1936-1982 (in French). Hauterive. p. 574. ISBN2-9800739-1-1. BC36-82.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Pierre Frénette; Daniel Chevrier; Jean-Marie M. Dubois; Pierre Dufour; Jean-Charles Fortin; André Lepage; José Mailhot; Françoise Niellon; Normand Perron (1996). Institut québécois de recherche sur la culture (ed.). Histoire de la Côte-Nord (in French). p. 667. HistoireCN.
3.9%
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