Kirkland Lake

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Kirkland Lake 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.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan=2 | Canada 2006 Census!! Population !! % of Total Population

| rowspan=7 | Visible minority group Source: || South Asian || 10 || 0.1

| Chinese || 25 || 0.3

| Black || 40 || 0.5

| Filipino || 15 || 0.2

| Latin American || 0 || 0

| Southeast Asian || 0 || 0

| Other visible minority || 0 || 0

| colspan=2 | Total visible minority population|| 90 || 1.1

| rowspan=3 | Aboriginal group Source: and Heritage North (an interactive facility telling the story of hockey in the north). Upcoming attractions include a refurbishment of the historical Toburn Headframe. Event based tourism is also strong. Some of the most popular draws include a drag racing event in the summer and a national snow cross racing event in the winter.

Prospects for an expansion of the Town's white-collar workforce are excellent. Two new high schools as well as a long-term care facility, and a new medical centre promise to make the community more attractive to professionals in the fields of medicine and education. Veterans Affairs Canada is also growing its client service operations. The local office is now the primary service bureau for over 100,000 clients across central and eastern Canada.

Through the 1990s, one of the town's dominant political and economic controversies surrounded a proposal to ship Toronto's garbage to the Adams Mine, an abandoned open pit mine in Boston Township just outside Kirkland Lake.

Kirkland Lake is also self-sufficient when it comes to power production with a generator that produces up to 117MW.

Kirkland Lake also has a shopping mall with stores including Dollarama, easyhome, Hart Stores, Giant Tiger, and Topper's Pizza. The mall also includes local businesses, such as Nail World, a nail salon, and Elegance by Jen, a local hairdresser. It is also the location of the Ontario Northland bus stop.

Arts and culture

thumb|Kinross Pond signthumb|Kinross Pond The Kirkland Lake area continues to support a strong tourist industry throughout the year. The summers are met with a number of anglers, hunters, and campers looking for adventure. Winters are especially popular as a result of the well maintained snow mobile trails in the area. There are also a number of tourist destinations in the area, including the recently developed Hockey Heritage North. It also has a strong community built on music. Local attractions include:

Kirkland Lake Miners' Memorial.
Blueberry Festival - an annual summer event at Esker Lakes Provincial Park.
Toburn Mine - This mine was the first producing mine in Kirkland Lake and the old headframe is a recognized cultural asset.
Wright-Hargreaves Park - Site of the former Wright-Hargreaves mine that used to be one of the most productive and deepest gold mines in the world.
Winter Carnival - beginning in mid-February.

Homecoming Week

The Kirkland Lake Festivals Committee hosts an annual homecoming week. Many former residents return home for the celebrations. The 2019 homecoming week was a celebration of the community's 100th anniversary.

Homecoming events included free kids events, Shakespeare in the Park, a BMX, skateboard and scooter extreme park competition, a local food fair, free kids matinees, splash park events, golf tournaments, A day in the park at the Toburn Mine site, fireworks and more. The Festivals Committee also hosts free Canada Day celebrations with fireworks.

As of 2022, the Homecoming Week was cancelled indefinitely.

Winter Carnival

The Kirkland Lake Festivals Committee hosts an annual winter carnival beginning in mid-February. With 18 days of events each year, Kirkland Lake's Winter Carnival is one of Canada's longest winter carnivals. Festivals and Events Ontario has honoured the event with multiple Top 100 Festival awards.

The 2018 Kirkland Lake Winter Carnival featured 18 days of events between February 15–March 4 including: the Alamos Gold $50,000 Ice Fishing Derby, Hockey Tournament, Kids Winter Jam Party featuring the Stars of Pop, 3 nights of Kabaret, Kirkland Lake Skating Club's Ice Show, fireworks, free sleigh rides, a comedy night, free skating parties, a magic show, free kids matinees and the NorthernTel Kids Carnival on the Family Day holiday.

As of 2022, the Winter Carnival was cancelled and events were to be made by the companies and groups on their own, as the Festivals Committee has shut down.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Inter-city bus services are provided by Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services. A staffed bus station is located at the Kirkland Lake Mall and busses also make flag stops at the site of the former railway station in Swastika.

The Ontario Northland Railway mainline passes through the municipality, with a branch freight line diverging at Swastika east toward Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Swastika station was a stop for ONR's Northlander passenger train until the service was discontinued in 2012. The stop will be renamed "Kirkland Lake" and a new permanent heated passenger shelter, replacing the station that was demolished in 2020, will be constructed on the site between 2024 and 2026 in preparation for ONR resuming Northlander service in the mid-2020s.

The Kirkland Lake Airport is located outside of the town and serves general aviation. The nearest airports offering scheduled passenger services are Timmins Victor M. Power Airport and Rouyn-Noranda Airport.

Local transportation is also provided to senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

Healthcare

The Blanche River Health Kirkland Lake site, formerly known as the Kirkland and District Hospital, serves the area.

Education

Kirkland Lake has two secondary schools, each catering to a different language group: the École secondaire catholique l'Envolée du Nord, a French Catholic school; and the Kirkland Lake District Composite School, an English secondary school also featuring French immersion instruction (opened in 2006; from 1923 – 2006 students attended Kirkland Lake Collegiate and Vocational Institute, also known as KLCVI).

Elementary schools in Kirkland Lake include Central Public School (French immersion, public), Federal Public School (English, public), Sacred Heart School, (French immersion and English, Catholic), St. Jerome School (French immersion and English, Catholic), and Ecole Assomption (French, Catholic).

The community is also home to a campus of the Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology.

Northern College offers one-, two- and three-year programs in the fields of technology, business, human services, health and emergency services and veterinary sciences. Northern also offers post-diploma, apprenticeship, skills and job re-entry programs funded by the federal and provincial governments. The college also provides job related training. This includes providing the facilities for the delivery of third party programs, or the development of courses to meet the needs of a company.

Kirkland Lake also includes the Teck Centennial Public Library.

Media

The city's primary newspaper is Northern News. Formerly a daily paper, Northern News now publishes three times per week.

Radio

FM 90.3 - CBCR-FM, CBC Radio One
FM 93.7 - CBON-FM-1, Première Chaîne
FM 101.5 - CJKL-FM, Hot Adult Contemporary

Television

The town is served by a rebroadcaster of CITO-TV (CTV) which is officially licensed to the outlying community of Kearns.

Notable people

John Allan - Canadian Forces officer who served as Commander of Maritime Command from 1979 to 1980
Ralph Backstrom - NHL hockey player
Lee Barkell - figure skater (represented Canada - gold medals), high performance coach (Olympic level)
Mario Bernardi - conductor, pianist
Don Biederman - racing driver
Buddy Boone - NHL hockey player
Robert A. Bryce - Canadian businessman and prospector
Bill Brydge - NHL hockey player
Toller Cranston - Olympic figure skater, painter
Dick Duff - NHL hall of famer
Les Duff - AHL record holder
Murray Hall - NHL hockey player
Ed Havrot - politician
Karl Brooks Heisey - Canadian mining engineer/executive
Floyd "Bud" Hillman - AHL and NHL hockey player
Larry Hillman - NHL and WHA - hockey player and Winnipeg Jets first coach
Wayne Hillman - NHL and WHA - hockey player
Michael Hogan - actor
Bob Howes - professional football player in the CFL and former head football coach for Queen's University
Kimmo Innanen - astrophysicist
Daryl Kramp - former politician (elected as the Prince Edward–Hastings MP in 2004)
Megan Leslie - politician (elected as the Halifax MP in 2008)
Michael Mahonen - actor
Diane Marleau - politician
Kurtis McLean - NHL hockey player
Frank Melong - AHL hockey player
Bob Murdoch - NHL hockey player, coach
Claude Noël - NHL hockey player, former coach of the Winnipeg Jets NHL franchise
Sir Harry Oakes - mining millionaire
Barclay Plager - NHL hockey player, coach
Bill Plager - NHL hockey player
Bob Plager (1943–2021) - NHL hockey player
Daren Puppa - NHL hockey player
Dick Redmond - NHL hockey player
Mickey Redmond - NHL hockey player, sports broadcaster
Ann Shipley - reeve, Teck Township (1943–1952)
Terry Slater - hockey player and coach
Alan Thicke - actor from Growing Pains and composer of TV theme songs Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
Mike Walton - NHL and WHA player
Tom Webster (ice hockey) - NHL and WHA player, NHL coach and scout
William Henry Wright - mining millionaire

In popular culture

Termini Station was filmed in Kirkland Lake.