Montreal Districts

Saint-Michel


The Saint-Michel district is located in the east part of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, a borough situated in the center north of the Island of Montreal.

Compared to the borough, the district is larger and its population is more crowded than in the Villeray or Parc-Extension districts. The whole borough is rather densely populated and economically and socially underprivileged. An encouraging fact though, the delinquency rate has been diminishing since 1996 and 1998.

Place Saint-Michel

As early as 1707, quarries, lime kilns and farms were exploited in a village located in the north-east centre of the Island. The hamlet became Saint-Michel de Laval in 1912 and was an important relay between Ville Marie and Sault au Récollet.

Between 1946 and 1964, the sector experienced prosperity, thanks to the factories installed on its territory and to the two quarries, Miron and its neighbour sister Francon.

Workers and immigrants, especially Italians, and their families moved “en masse” to Saint-Michel. The population grew, parishes were created, houses were built, factories were opened, but, regrettably, with very little global urban planning.

After that, the situation began to deteriorate. In the 1960s the industrial orientation of the territory was completely modified. The lime kilns and the smelting furnaces died out, both quarries - Miron and Francon - were no longer exploited, new warehouses and workshops were built, and the residents slowly moved out.


Definition of Population

Parc Villeray

Today the district is characterized by an important number of families with children and by a relatively young population. Four out of ten of the residents of the borough are immigrants.

The Italians first, and the Haitians since 1991 form the two main visible minorities living in the neighbourhood. Both get rather well with the Latin-Americans and the Asians. The population speaks French mostly and is largely multiethnic.

Boisé de Saint-Sulpice

The district and the borough are now poorer. Small manufacturing industries are spread around the neighbourhood and a few retail stores serve the local population.

There is, however, a modern industrial park West of Pie IX where Peerless, a large men’s wear factory provides jobs to hundreds of workers. With more than one hundred companies on its territory, the clothing industry is rather significant in Saint-Michel.

The residents are, for the most part, tenants and they don't tend to move as often as other Montrealers do. The residences are relatively new, almost all of them having been built between 1946 and 1970. Due to low salaries though, housing is a very important expenditure for tenants as well as for owners, a good part of their income having to be spent on lodging.


Types of Institutions

Boulevard Métropolitain

Saint-Michel and Pie IX Boulevards link the north to the south of the island, but they also divide the borough and bring along communication problems.

Cut in two by the Metropolitan Boulevard, the vicinity has long been stained by the two quarries that once occupied 42% of its surface and, along with the CN railway, contributed to close in its north-west sector.

The vocation of the quarries as burying sites and snow dumps represented a physical as well as a psychological barrier. Nowadays, they represent something else, they represent new development space in a district where the buildings were slowly degrading and where green spaces were missing.

Metropolitain Boulevard

The fact that the Cirque du Soleil chose the sector for its Head Office and its School raised new hopes and is a reason for the Michelois to be proud of their district. What's more, the Cité des arts du cirque, a major project of urban revitalization, and the École nationale du cirque also chose the sector. They are part of the TOHU and independent of the Cirque du Soleil.

The urban revitalization project of the René Goupil sector is also promising. The project of a public market opened all year round is a dream that could become a reality. The district is now experiencing a new turn in the right direction, and this is very fortunate.


Jobs in my Area

La TOHU

After receiving our green bags for over 20 years, the old Miron and Francon sites and some of the surrounding areas were acquired by the City of Montreal in 1988.

Renamed the Waste Sorting and Elimination Center, the site eventually became the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex and the focus of the most extensive environmental rehabilitation project ever undertaken by the City. The CESM development plan calls for the site to be transformed into an urban and ever-changing park with educational, cultural, sporting, commercial and industrial activities.

The TOHU chose to put down its roots on the borders of the CESM, that vast 192-hectare territory that was still a limestone quarry at the turn of the 20th century. The TOHU is now one of the world's largest gathering places for circus arts training, creation, production and performance.

The objective of the TOHU is to ensure the mission of the "Cité des arts du cirque" in the participation and in the revitalization of the district. In addition, La TOHU designs and hosts the ecology programs and the activities in the main Pavilion that serves as the welcome pavilion in the St-Michel Environmental Complex.


Thank you for visiting Saint-Michel.
More to come soon.

Villeray
Parc-Extension
Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension Borough

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