Saint-Lazare () is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada in the Regional County Municipality of Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

History

Originally part of the Seigneurie de Vaudreuil in the 18th century, the territory corresponding to Saint-Lazare was considered difficult to farm owing to sandy soil, and remained mostly uninhabited. In 1812, the first settlers were Americans from New England. Circa 1820, English from Cumberland settled the area, who were followed soon after by French Canadians.

In April 2023, there was a massive power outage that cause approximately 8000 households to lose electricity, according to Hydro-Quebec at that time. Only eight households had electricity at the height of the ice-storm crisis.

Geography

Communities

  • Saint-Lazare-de-Vaudreuil
  • Saint-Lazare-Sud
  • Saint-Lazare-Nord
  • Saddlebrook
  • Sandcastle
  • Cedarbrook
  • Sunnybrook
  • Chanterel
  • Forest Hill
  • Maple Ridge

Soils

Saint-Lazare was built on thick deposits of sand. Poorly drained areas are most common in the eastern part of town and have been mapped as muck, Peat or Vaudreuil series (a "half-bog" or gleysol), while the well to rapidly drained classic podzols are assigned to Ste. Sophie or Upland series.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Saint-Lazare 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.

  • École à l'Orée-du-Bois
  • École Auclair
  • École des Étriers
  • Sections are zoned to École Saint-Thomas in Hudson

There is one French language public high school (École secondaire Cité-des-Jeunes in Vaudreuil-Dorion) in the area.

Lester B. Pearson School Board operates Anglophone schools.

  • Birchwood Elementary School
  • Evergreen Elementary School
  • Forest Hill Elementary School
  • A portion is zoned to Mount Pleasant Elementary School in Hudson
  • Westwood High School-Junior Campus (the senior campus is in Hudson)

A new senior elementary school, Forest Hill Senior, was opened in 2006. There are also two English language public secondary schools in the surrounding area (Westwood Senior - formerly Hudson High School - and Westwood Junior-formerly known as Vaudreuil Catholic High School). A new English-language elementary school (Birchwood Elementary) has opened for the 2011–2012 school year, even after many delays in construction.

There is a semi-private French-speaking institution in Rigaud (Collège-Bourget).

See also

  • List of anglophone communities in Quebec
  • List of cities in Quebec

References

  • Surrounding area - Hudson, Quebec