Corner Brook
Corner Brook (2021 population: 19,333[1] CA 29,762) is a city located on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Corner Brook is the fifth largest settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.[2]
Corner Brook | |
|---|---|
| City of Corner Brook | |
 Overlooking City of Corner Brook | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
| Motto: "Our Spirit... Your Success" | |
   | |
| Coordinates: 48°57′N 57°57′W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Census division | 5 |
| Amalgamation | 1956 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipal |
| • Mayor | Jim Parsons |
| • MHA | Gerry Byrne (L) Eddie Joyce (IND) |
| • MP | Gudie Hutchings (L) |
| Area | |
| • City | 148.26 km2 (57.24 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 255.10 km2 (98.49 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 0 - 304 m (0 – 998 ft) |
| Population (2021)[1] | |
| • City | 19,333 |
| • Metro | 29,762 |
| Time zone | UTC-3:30 (Newfoundland Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-2:30 (Newfoundland Daylight) |
| Area code | 709 |
| Highways | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Route 1 (TCH) Route 440 Route 450A |
| Website | cornerbrook.com |
Located on the Bay of Islands at the mouth of the Humber River, the city is the second-largest population centre in the province behind St. John's,[3] and smallest of three cities behind St. John's and Mount Pearl.[4] As such, Corner Brook functions as a service centre for western and northern Newfoundland. It is located on the same latitude as Gaspé, Quebec, a city of similar size and landscape on the other side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Corner Brook is the most northern city in Atlantic Canada.
It is the administrative headquarters of the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nations band government.[5] The Mi'kmaq name for the nearby Humber River is "Maqtukwek".[6]
History
The area was surveyed by Captain James Cook in 1767. The Captain James Cook Historic Site stands on Crow Hill overlooking the city.[7] By the middle of the 19th century, the population of Corner Brook was less than 100, and the inhabitants were engaged in fishing and lumber work.[8]
The area was originally four distinct communities, each with unique commercial activities: Curling, with its fishery; Corner Brook West (also known as Humber West or Westside) with its retail businesses; Corner Brook East (also known as Humbermouth and the Heights) with its railway and industrial operations; and Townsite (known as Corner Brook) to house employees of the pulp and paper mill, laid out in 1923 by Thomas Adams using Garden City principles.[9] In 1956, these four communities were amalgamated to form the present-day City of Corner Brook.
Between 1948 and 1958, about 70 people from Latvia and Germany settled in Corner Brook. They came as part of then Premier Joseph Smallwood's New Industries program. They built and worked at North Star Cement and the Atlantic Gypsum Plant. (For more history on the subject, see Latvians and Baltic Germans in Corner Brook.)
Corner Brook is home to the Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Mill (owned by Kruger Inc.), which is a major employer for the region.[10][11][12][13] The city has the largest regional hospital in western Newfoundland.[14] It also has a wide array of shopping and retail businesses and federal and provincial government offices. It is home to Grenfell Campus, Memorial University, as well as campuses of Academy Canada and College of the North Atlantic.
Corner Brook celebrated its Come Home Year from July 19–28, 2019.[15]
Demographics
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1945 | 5,464 | — |
| 1951 | 13,835 | +153.2% |
| 1956 | 23,225 | +67.9% |
| 1961 | 25,185 | +8.4% |
| 1971 | 26,309 | +4.5% |
| 1981 | 24,339 | −7.5% |
| 1986 | 22,719 | −6.7% |
| 1991 | 22,410 | −1.4% |
| 1996 | 21,893 | −2.3% |
| 2001 | 20,103 | −8.2% |
| 2006 | 20,083 | −0.1% |
| 2011 | 19,886 | −1.0% |
| 2016 | 19,806 | −0.4% |
| 2021 | 19,333 | −2.4% |
| The 1945 and 1951 population figures have been adjusted to reflect the city's amalgamation on January 1, 1956. Source: Statistics Canada [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][1][24] | ||
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Corner Brook had a population of 19,333 living in 8,868 of its 9,552 total private dwellings, a change of -2.4% from its 2016 population of 19,806. With a land area of 147.88 km2 (57.10 sq mi), it had a population density of 130.7/km2 (338.6/sq mi) in 2021.[24]
Ethnic origin
| Canada 2016 Census | Population | % of Total population | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visible minority group Source:[1] | South Asian | 85 | 0.3 |
| Chinese | 40 | 0.1 | |
| Black | 65 | 0.2 | |
| Filipino | 100 | 0.3 | |
| Latin American | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Southeast Asian | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Other visible minority | 45 | 0.1 | |
| Total visible minority population | 330 | 1.0 | |
| Aboriginal group Source:[1] | First Nations | 8,670 | 27.7 |
| Métis | 525 | 1.7 | |
| Inuit | 265 | 0.8 | |
| Total Aboriginal population | 9,240 | 29.5 | |
| White | 21,720 | 69.4 | |
| Total population | 31,290 | 100.0 | |
Sports
Near Corner Brook is Marble Mountain Ski Resort, a downhill skiing resort, and Blow-Me-Down trails, a cross country ski area.[25]
The Corner Brook Royals currently play in the West Coast Senior Hockey League and were the winners of the 1986 National Title, the Allan Cup. The Royals play their home games at the Corner Brook Civic Centre, formerly the Canada Games Centre. The arena was built in 1997 and was one of the main venues used when the city of Corner Brook hosted the 1999 Canada Games.[26]
Corner Brook was host of the Special Olympics Provincial Winter Games in February, 2011.[27] The city also twice hosted Raid the North Extreme, a televised 6-day multi-sport expedition race held in wilderness locations across Canada, and was a leg of the ITU World Cup Triathlon.[28]
In 2004, Corner Brook hosted the annual World Broomball Championship.
Arts and culture
Corner Brook is home to Grenfell Campus, Memorial University where a strong arts community exists both within the school and well into the public. The campus houses the Grenfell Art Gallery. The Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre among other institutions thrive in promoting the arts on all levels from visual arts to theatre and well beyond. In 2015, the City's newest theatre and gallery, the Rotary Arts Centre, opened.[29]
Theatre Newfoundland Labrador is Corner Brook's professional theatre company: founded in 1979 by the late Maxim Mazumdar, it operates a year-round professional theatre company from its home base, Corner Brook. From September to May, their Sarah McDonald Youth Theatre offers classes in acting, stagecraft and music to youth aged 6 to 8 and produces a number of youth and community oriented productions in and around the city. From May to September, it produces a professional repertory summer festival in Cow Head, Gros Morne National Park and regular national and international touring of plays like Tempting Providence by Robert Chafe, With Cruel Times in Between by Sarah McDonald, based on the various works by Al Pittman and Our Frances by Berni Stapleton.
Corner Brook is home to Gros Morne Summer Music, a classical music festival that spans July and August. The Hangashore Folk Festival was a folk festival based in Corner Brook from 1980–1994.
For 32 years, the March Hare literary festival ran every March and celebrated poetry and written works by poets and writers from around Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and the world. Atlantic Canada's largest poetry festival was founded in the late 1980s by poet and playwright Al Pittman, and Corner Brook author, historian Rex Brown. The last March Hare was held in 2018.[30]
Corner Brook is also home to the region's only community radio station, Bay of Islands Radio (CKVB-FM 100.1, or BOIR). The station was previously only available online. However, the station received its broadcast licence from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on October 6, 2016, and commenced FM broadcasting on November 5, 2017. The radio station is located on Brook Street, in the city's downtown district.[31][32][33][34]
Municipal government
The Corner Brook City Council has six city councillors, in addition to a mayor. The highest voting winning councillor becomes Deputy Mayor. The current mayor of the city is Jim Parsons. The deputy mayor is Linda Chaisson. Municipal elections in Corner Brook are held every four years, on the last Tuesday in September. In the 2021 municipal elections held on September 28, 2021, Jim Parsons was re-elected mayor.[35]
Transportation
Route 1, the Trans-Canada Highway, passes the south side of the city on a high ridge before descending to the east, into the Humber Valley.
The city is accessed by air services at Deer Lake Regional Airport, 55 km (34 mi) northeast.
Corner Brook Transit is a privately operated local bus service.[36] The city is also served by four taxi cab companies.
Climate
Corner Brook has a humid continental climate (Dfb) typical of most of Newfoundland. It is warmer in summer than St. John's due to less maritime exposure, whereas winters are colder than in the provincial capital. In terms of its overall climate, it is quite maritime, especially taking into account how the climate is in mainland Canada on similar latitudes. Precipitation is heavy year-round, but highest in December and January and lowest in April and May, with relatively more dry, stable conditions extending into July many years.
The Corner Brook area lies in an especially heavy snow belt because of cold Arctic air masses from mainland Canada, coming from the west or northwest, crossing the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and picking up moisture, resulting in "sea-effect" snow (similar to "lake effect" snow in US locations like Muskegon and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan). The "sea effect" snow comes in addition to the heavy snow that can accompany mid-latitude storms, called "nor'easters," that approach the area from the U.S. Northeastern and New England states. Such storms can bring high winds and heavy precipitation, with possibly-changing precipitation types in a single storm. The combination of intense winter storms and "sea effect" snow make December and January the wettest months on average in Corner Brook. In December and January combined, average snowfall reaches nearly 200 centimetres (79 in).
| Climate data for Corner Brook, 1981–2010 normals, extremes 1933–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 16.5 (61.7) |
14.0 (57.2) |
20.5 (68.9) |
22.5 (72.5) |
27.2 (81.0) |
35.0 (95.0) |
34.4 (93.9) |
34.4 (93.9) |
31.1 (88.0) |
27.0 (80.6) |
21.7 (71.1) |
16.7 (62.1) |
35.0 (95.0) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −2.7 (27.1) |
−3.0 (26.6) |
0.8 (33.4) |
6.4 (43.5) |
12.4 (54.3) |
17.4 (63.3) |
22.0 (71.6) |
21.6 (70.9) |
17.1 (62.8) |
10.8 (51.4) |
5.0 (41.0) |
0.4 (32.7) |
9.0 (48.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.1 (21.0) |
−6.8 (19.8) |
−3.2 (26.2) |
2.6 (36.7) |
8.0 (46.4) |
12.8 (55.0) |
17.3 (63.1) |
17.3 (63.1) |
13.0 (55.4) |
7.5 (45.5) |
2.3 (36.1) |
−2.5 (27.5) |
5.2 (41.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −9.6 (14.7) |
−10.6 (12.9) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
−1.2 (29.8) |
3.4 (38.1) |
8.2 (46.8) |
12.6 (54.7) |
12.9 (55.2) |
8.8 (47.8) |
4.0 (39.2) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
−5.3 (22.5) |
1.3 (34.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −31.7 (−25.1) |
−31.7 (−25.1) |
−29.4 (−20.9) |
−18.5 (−1.3) |
−7.5 (18.5) |
−4.4 (24.1) |
1.1 (34.0) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−2.8 (27.0) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
−16.1 (3.0) |
−20.6 (−5.1) |
−31.7 (−25.1) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 144.8 (5.70) |
105.6 (4.16) |
93.3 (3.67) |
80.4 (3.17) |
86.3 (3.40) |
87.0 (3.43) |
91.8 (3.61) |
107.2 (4.22) |
105.5 (4.15) |
112.2 (4.42) |
122.4 (4.82) |
149.2 (5.87) |
1,285.8 (50.62) |
| Average snowfall cm (inches) | 105.5 (41.5) |
77.6 (30.6) |
51.6 (20.3) |
24.3 (9.6) |
5.2 (2.0) |
0.2 (0.1) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.1 (0.0) |
6.2 (2.4) |
36.7 (14.4) |
94.0 (37.0) |
401.3 (158.0) |
| Source: Environment Canada[37][38] | |||||||||||||
Notable people
- Ian Arthur, politician
- Keith Brown, National Hockey League player
- Brian Byrne, former lead singer of rock band I Mother Earth
- Frank Coleman, businessman
- Allison Crowe, musician
- Donald B. Dingwell, scientist
- Gary Graham, music teacher, Order of NL recipient
- Doug Grant, National Hockey League goaltender
- Bruce Grobbelaar, former professional soccer goalkeeper[39]
- Susan Kent, actress
- Irma Gerd, Drag Queen who competed on Canada's Drag Race Season 3
- Jason King, National Hockey League player
- Joe Lundrigan, National Hockey League player
- Adriana Maggs, actress, director, and writer
- Trent McClellan, comedian
- Dick Nolan, musician
- Al Pittman, poet and playwright
- Percy Janes, author
- Sean Durfy, businessman and former CEO of WestJet
- Allen Vansen, Vice President for VANOC and executive Vice President for Pan American Games in Toronto [40]
See also
References
- "Census Profile, 2016 Census: Corner Brook, City [Census subdivision], Newfoundland and Labrador". Statistics Canada. 8 February 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- "N.L. the only province to see population drop since 2016, says new census". Cbc.ca. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
- "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and population centres, 2016 and 2011 censuses – 100% data: Newfoundland and Labrador". Statistics Canada. August 28, 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2016 and 2011 censuses – 100% data: Newfoundland and Labrador". Statistics Canada. August 28, 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- "Qalipu – Qalipu First Nation Band". qalipu.ca. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- "Regional Language Studies...Newfoundland" (PDF). Memorial University of Newfoundland. August 15, 1978. p. 10. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- "Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism website". newfoundlandlabrador.com. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- "Fast Facts & History". City of Corner Brook. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
- Richard Symonds (2001), Architecture and Planning of the Corner Brook Townsite 1923-1925, Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
- "Corner Brook Pulp and Paper gets $90M government loan". Cbc.ca. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
- "Agreements Completed with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited".
- "Some market factors going in Corner Brook Pulp and Paper's favour". Saltwire.com.
- "$227M for Corner Brook hospital complex". Cbc.ca. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
- "Corner Brook hospital will be built, Marshall vows". Cbc.ca. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
- Crocker, Diane (August 5, 2019). "Corner Brook Come Home Year was good for business". The Western Star. Saltwire Network. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- 140.pdf Archived January 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Canada Year Book 1955
- 126.pdf Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Canada Year Book 1957-58
- "Canada Year Book 1967" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-23. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
- "1996 Census of Canada: Electronic Area Profiles". 12.statcan.gc.ca.
- "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses - 100% data". 12.statcan.gc.ca.
- "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2011 and 2006 censuses". 12.statcan.gc.ca.
- Statistics Canada. "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2011 and 2006 censuses". 12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
- "Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions (municipalities), Newfoundland and Labrador". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- "Blow Me Down Trails - The Place to Ski is BMD!". blowmedown.ca. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- "About the Pepsi Centre". Archived from the original on March 15, 2012.
- "Countdown to the 2011 Special Olympics Winter Games in Corner Brook". Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- "2001 Corner Brook ITU Triathlon World Cup". Triathlon.org. International Triathlon Union. July 29, 2001. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- "Rotary Arts Centre in Corner Brook has its grand opening". CBC News. May 8, 2015.
- Diane Crocker, "This Will Be The Last March Hare", The Western Star, March 7, 2018
- "Bay of Islands Radio hopes meeting can help salvage its future" Archived 2016-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. Gary Kean, The Western Star. November 25, 2014
- "Bay of Islands Radio wants a location to go FM" Archived 2016-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. Western Star, Gary Kean, May 08, 2014
- "Bay of Islands Radio has a new home. Gary Moore stopped by for a tour.". CBC Radio.
- "New home available for Bay of Islands Radio" Archived 2016-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. The Western Star, Chris Quigley, November 27, 2014
- "Jim Parsons re-elected mayor of Corner Brook as council sees changes". NTV.ca. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- City of Corner Brook. Transit Archived 2011-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
- Canada, Environment and Climate Change (25 September 2013). "Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010 Station Data - Climate - Environment and Climate Change Canada". climate.weather.gc.ca. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- Canada, Environment and Climate Change (31 October 2011). "Station Results - Historical Data - Climate - Environment and Climate Change Canada". climate.weather.gc.ca. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- "Bruce Grobbelaar – Hillsborough Tragedy – West Coast Morning – CBC Player". CBC. September 19, 2012. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014.
- https://commonwealthsport.ca/news/rugby-canada-announces-allen-vansen-new-chief-executive-officer.html
External links
Division No. 5, Newfoundland and Labrador (Humber District) | ||
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