Hawkesbury is a town in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario, with about 70% of its inhabitants being fluent in English and French. Franco-Ontarians make up 89% of the population. The Long-Sault Bridge links it to Grenville, Quebec to the north. This bridge, crossing Chenail Island, is the only interprovincial bridge between Ontario and Quebec east of Ottawa. The town is located approximately midway between Ottawa and Montreal.

Etymology

The name Hawkesbury derives from a combination of Hawks, a family name, and bury, a transformation of berry (castle).

History

Founded in 1798, Hawkesbury was named after the Right Honourable Charles Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury. Thomas Mears and David Pattee, two Americans, entered into a partnership in 1805, in order to harness the power of the lower Ottawa River and built the first sawmill on the Upper Canada side of the river. The town of Hawkesbury developed around this mill. Mears also built the Union, the Ottawa River's first steamer. Demand for timber during the Napoleonic Wars created a boom. The mill complex continued to grow for at least the next half century, and by 1870 it included 145 different saws and created over 35 million board feet of lumber per year. Timber and pulp-and-paper industries have been supplanted by textiles, synthetic fibres, metal extrusions, steel, glass and plastics. Hawkesbury has also become the business and service centre of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. The Grenville Canal on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River opposite Hawkesbury was an important link in the river's transportation system. Part of Hawkesbury was submerged by the Carillon Hydro-Québec dam built between 1950 and 1962, which called for the demolition of over 300 houses in and around Hawkesbury. New developments today are happening due to baby boomers from Ottawa, Montreal and area purchasing some of the many new condos in town.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Hawkesbury had a population of 10,194 living in 5,080 of its 5,308 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of 10,263. With a land area of 10.1 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Languages

The 2006 census found that French was the native language of 77% of the population, while English was the mother tongue of 16%. A very high percentage (2.7%) claim both French and English as their mother tongues. In 2006, this was the highest proportion in Canada. According to the 2011 census, the percentage of the population declaring solely French as a mother tongue grew to 78.6% while the proportion of the population declaring solely English as a mother tongue declined to 15.3%. The percentage claiming both French and English as their mother tongues declined below 2.00% by 2011.

Ethnocultural ancestries

In parallel to the responses to the census question about ethnocultural ancestries, which are shown below, 1.0% of the population also reported having an Aboriginal identity, while 3.1% reported having a visible minority status (including 2.0% who identified as South Asian). Single responses: 42.4% of respondents gave a single response of 'Canadian', while a further 25.3% identified with both 'Canadian', and one or more other ancestries. 13.4% of respondents gave a single response of French, 1.9% gave a single response of Irish, 1.9% gave a single response of English and 1.1% gave a single response of North American Indian. Multiple responses: Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: ''Percentages are calculated as a proportion of the total number of respondents and may total more than 100% due to dual responses. All ethnocultural ancestries of more than 1% are listed in the table above according to the exact terminology used by Statistics Canada.''

Transportation

Hawkesbury is located along Prescott and Russell County Road 17, a former routing of Highway 17 and the Trans-Canada Highway which connects with Highway 417 eastwards to Montreal. Hawkesbury also connects to Highway 417 westward to Ottawa by a 17 km remnant of Highway 34. The Long-Sault Interprovincial Bridge between Hawkesbury, Ontario, and Grenville, Quebec, means that Hawkesbury is within minutes of Autoroute 50 and Route 148 in Quebec. The town is served by two small airports: The closest VIA Rail station with direct service to Ottawa and Montreal is located in Alexandria about 40 km south of Hawkesbury.

Education

Hawkesbury hosts many establishments in the field of education, from elementary schools to colleges and an adult campus. Elementary Schools: Secondary Schools: Post-secondary establishments: Other educational-based establishments:

Media

Hawkesbury and area are served primarily by local media, media from Montreal and by media from Ottawa. The town does, however, have four radio stations which broadcast at least partially from local studios in Hawkesbury.

Newspaper

Le Régional is a bilingual independent newspaper that covers the Prescott-Russell region and the municipalities of Grenville and Grenville-sur-la-Rouge in Québec. Le Carillon, a French-language newspaper, and its bilingual supplement The Tribune Express that cover Hawkesbury and the Prescott-Russell region and are published by the Edition André Paquette Group. The Review is an English-language weekly newspaper that covers the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell area, which includes Hawkesbury.

Radio

Television

Notable people

Popular culture