Language

Canada Census Mother Tongue - Sayabec, Quebec[14]
Census		Total		French				English				French & English				Other
Year		Responses		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %
2021		1,710		1,695	0.3%	99.1%		5	16.7%	0.3%		5	0.0%	0.3%		0	0.0%	0.0%
2016		1,580		1,560	13.1%	98.7%		10	100.0%	0.6%		5	50.0%	0.3%		0	0.0%	0.0%
2011		1,815		1,795	5.8%	98.9%		5	n/a%	0.3%		10	n/a%	0.6%		0	100.0%	0.0%
2006		1,910		1,905	1.8%	99.7%		0	100.0%	0.0%		0	0.0%	0.0%		10	n/a%	0.5%
2001		1,955		1,940	1.8%	99.2%		10	50.0%	0.5%		0	100.0%	0.0%		0	0.0%	0.0%
1996		2,005		1,975	n/a	98.5%		20	n/a	1.0%		10	n/a	0.5%		0	n/a	0.0%

Early history

Mi'kmaq camp, circa 1857

The region was first frequented by the Mi'kmaq First Nation, beginning before the 17th century. In 1694, the lordship of Lake Madapequia was granted to Charles-Nicolas-Joseph D'Amours by the New France's governor, Louis de Buade de Frontenac. However, despite the laws of the time, this owner never inhabited nor exploited this territory, and he didn't officially bequeathed it. It is the construction of Kempt Road from 1830 to 1832 and Matapédia Road from 1847 to 1862 that allowed the colonization of the Matapédia Valley. Afterwards, the Intercolonial Railway, built from 1870 to 1872, has been an important catalyst for the development of the forest industry in the valley.

Roadside cross erected in 1875 by Marceline Brochu, wife of Pierre Brochu

The first inhabitant of Matapédia Valley was Pierre Brochu (1795-1871) born in Saint-Vallier, Bellechasse, who settled down at the tip of Matapédia Lake in 1833. He was operating a guard post along Kempt Road to offer relief and lodging to travellers and postilions. He occupied this position until his death in 1871. Around 1850 he sat up a sawmill at the head of Matapédia Lake. After his death his second wife Marcella Dumas continued to cultivate the land at this place for eight years.

Even if the first settler established himself as soon as 1833, it is the establishment of John Fenderson Company at the end of the 19th century that attracted more settlers in Sayabec. From this moment, more settlers, mainly from Rimouski and Matane counties, moved to Sayabec to work in the sawmills or to clear lands. From then on the forestry vocation of Sayabec was set and more people came to work in the sawmills then to settle as farmers.

The Fenderson family was the first real industrials of the valley. They bought a shingle mill in 1896. This mill was destroyed by fire the next year, and John Fenderson built a new sawmill for timbers and shingles as well as a plant for wood finishing. In 1910 he bought the lordship of Matapédia Lake as well as the sawmill of Val-Brillant, Quebec. The sawmill for timbers closed in 1918, and has been demolished in 1922, but the sawmill for wood finishing continued to operate full-time. Around 80% of products were exported to the United States. In 1922 John Fenderson & Company built a plant to transform hardwood into wood flooring. At the time it was the biggest industry in all Eastern Quebec, employing around 400 people. John Fenderson & Company's plants has been sold to John Fenderson Lumber Limited Company, and then to Domaine Seigneurial, before being definitely closed in 1952.

Development of the municipality

The municipality was first officially created on February 18, 1887 as a school municipality instead of a parish municipality unlike as usual in Quebec, because education was important for local settlers. The first school was built in 1892. For the construction of this school each Sayabécois had to provide 24 ft of 8 ft long squared cedar for each arpent of land he possessed.

In 1885 a catholic mission was established under the name of Sainte-Marie-de-Sayabec. The catholic parish had been canonically erected on November 29, 1894, and the first priest was Joseph-Cléophas Saindon, beginning on October 2, 1896. The parish municipality had been officially created on April, 1st 1895 under the same name of the mission established five years before. On May 20, 1895 the municipal council unanimously adopted a motion stipulating that French was the only language used in debates and municipal affairs. The first aqueduct was built in 1903. The same year started the construction of the first stone church. The caisse populaire (credit union) had been established in 1907 by the priest Joseph-Cléophas Saindon. The phone had been installed before the electricity, when the first switchboard was commissioned in 1908. In 1910 Sayabec became the first village of the province of Quebec to adopt macadam roads, when it applied it on route de l'Église (Church Road). Between 1912 and 1917 the grand chemin Matapédia (Matapédia Big Road) also known as chemin Militaire (Military Road) had been macadamized. In 1911 Compagnie électrique d'Amqui (Amqui Electric Company) built an hydroelectric power plant downstream of Matapédia Lake in order to provide electricity to Amqui, Val-Brillant and Sayabec. This allowed the installation of street lightning in 1914. Compagnie électrique d'Amqui held the exclusivity on the electric network for a 25 years period in exchange of providing street lightning. In 1922 Compagnie de Pouvoir du Bas-Saint-Laurent (Bas-Saint-Laurent Power Company) owned by Jules-André Brillant bought Compagnie électrique d'Amqui and became the only power distributor in the region until the nationalization of electricity in Quebec in 1963.

Sayabec's church

In 1912 the railway station opened. On March 28, 1917 the village split into two municipalities, when the village municipality of Saindon separated from the parish municipality of Sayabec. The village was named after the first priest, canon Joseph-Cléophas Saindon. On May 19, 1921 the village was once more divided, when the parish municipality of Saint-Cléophas was founded. Once again it had been named after priest Saindon. In 1927 Sainte-Paule, which was until then a mission of the catholic parish of Sayabec, separated to form its own municipality. In the 1920s the village counted 500 families. On February 18, 1929 a lightning destroyed most of the church; it has been rebuilt with the original walls in 1931. In May 1941 a corps of peace officers had been founded to ensure public order.

In 1942, Sayabécois adopted a strong position against conscription. At the beginning of the 1950s Sayabec counted a total of nine schools. In 1951 the village of Saindon adopted the name of Sayabec. The first telephone code assigned to Sayabec was "748", but in 1969 the current code "536" had been assigned to Sayabec and Saint-Cléophas. On March 6, 1962 an office of the Police provinciale du Québec (Quebec Provincial Police) opened in Sayabec; it closed on April 30, 1963. The municipality bought its first snowplow in 1969. On January 5, 1976 the municipality office had been sat up in the current city hall, which was an old Daughters of Jesus residence bought by the Matapédia School District. On December 24, 1982 the Parish Municipality of Sainte-Marie-de-Sayabec and the Village Municipality of Sayabec had been merged into one municipality under the current name of Sayabec.

HLMs in Sayabec

Pavillon Saindon

In 1968 eight HLMs had been built under a program of Société d'habitation du Québec (Quebec Housing Corporation). In 1984 an eleven-tenant building for the elderly called Pavillon Chanoine Saindon was built, and in 1990 a second eleven-tenant building for elderly called Appartements J.-A. Ross was built next to the first. Those lodging units are managed by the Sayabec Municipal Housing Office. Following a governmental decree of July 1, 1986 Sayabec had to close its municipal opencast dump, which opened in 1951. From then on, Sayabec's waste are transported to the regional landfill in Amqui. In 1988 Hydro-Québec installed a new power distribution station in Sayabec. On February 20, 1987 the municipality bought a warehouse to establish its municipal garage in order to house fire protection vehicles and municipal machinery.

Panval

On February 19, 1981 the implantation of the panels-furniture plant was officially announced. On August, 20 of the same year the Quebec Premier René Lévesque came to Sayabec. The Crown corporation Rexfor and the German firm Kunz were the two main shareholders of this plant named Panneaux de la Vallée shortened into Panval. On December 5, 1982 a thanksgiving mass had been celebrated at the occasion of the start of operations of Panval. Doctor Kunz himself attended this mass, and stated that this religious celebration was a first between all his plants around the world. In 1987 Panval was enlarged by the addition of a third laminating press, and then became the largest producer of laminated panels in North America. In 1989 Panval employed 425 full-time employees, and occupied 62,700 sq m. More than 1,000 trucks by month served the plant. However, the NAFTA had a bad impact on the production of Panval, and its personnel had been reduced to 225 employees. As of 2012, the plant belongs to Uniboard Canada and is the largest industry in the region.