Cornwall, Ontario

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cornwall, Ontario
Cornwall
Cornwall
Flag of Cornwall, Ontario
Flag		 Official logo of Cornwall, Ontario
Logo
Motto: Pro Patria
Location of Cornwall in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario
Location of Cornwall in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario
Coordinates: 45°01′39″N 74°44′24″W / 45.0275, -74.74
Country Canada
Province Ontario
Founded 1784
Government
 - Mayor Bob Kilger
Area
 - City 61.83 km² (23.9 sq mi)
 - Land 61.83 km² (23.9 sq mi)
Population (2006)
 - City 45,965 (Ranked 100)
 - Metro 58,485
  source: Statistics Canada
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Website: http://www.cornwall.ca/

Cornwall is a city in eastern Ontario, Canada and the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the St. Lawrence River and Highway 401, and is the urban centre for surrounding communities, which include Long Sault and Ingleside to the west, Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne to the south, St. Andrew's and Avonmore to the north, and Glen Walter, Martintown, Williamstown, and Lancaster to the east.

Cornwall is located approximately 100 kilometres (60 mi) southeast of Ottawa, Canada's capital, 100 kilometres (60 mi) southwest of Montreal, Quebec's largest city and the second most important urban centre in Canada, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) northeast of Toronto, the capital of Ontario and the largest urban centre in Canada.

Contents

[edit] History

Coat Of Arms Of The City Of Cornwall
Coat Of Arms Of The City Of Cornwall

Aboriginal peoples have lived in and around the area of present day Cornwall for millennia. The first serious non-aboriginal settlement was established in 1784, by disbanded Loyalist soldiers, their families and other United Empire Loyalists-- primarily from New York -- following the 1776 American Revolution. They founded a settlement on the site formerly called Pointe Maligne, and named it New Johnstown. It was later renamed Cornwall for the Duke of Cornwall, Prince George, and became one of the first incorporated municipalities in the British colony of Upper Canada in 1834[1].

West of Cornwall, along the St. Lawrence River, there existed several smaller communities now known as The Lost Villages. These communities were permanently flooded in 1958 by the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway to make way for the massive Moses-Saunders hydroelectric dam at the western end of the city and were covered by the hydroelectric reservoir.

[edit] Demographics

According to the 2006 census, Cornwall has a population of 45,965. This represents a 0.7% increase from the 2001 Census[2], which gave the city a population of approximately 45,640, but is still 3% below the 1996 census figure of 47,403.

The 2001 census indicates that English is the first language learned by approximately 65% of the population, while 27% count French as their native language and the remainder have any of a number of mother tongues, including (among others) Mohawk, Greek, and Italian.

[edit] Economy

Seaway International Bridge
Seaway International Bridge

Cornwall is a port-of-entry into Canada connected to the United States at Roosevelttown, near the municipalities of Massena, New York and Malone, New York, via the Seaway International Bridge at The Three Nations Crossing (Canada,Mohawk,and U.S.A.) which crosses the St. Lawrence River and Cornwall Island, located within the Ontario portion of Akwesasne. Cornwall was once home to a thriving cotton processing industry. Courtaulds Canada Inc.’s rayon manufacturing mill operated until 1992 at one point employing almost 3,000. Domtar, a Quebec-based company operated a paper mill in the city for nearly one-hundred years, ceasing operations on March 31, 2006. At its peak, Domtar employed nearly 1,500 employees. In addition, Canadian Industries Limited (C.I.L.), now Pioneer Chemicals, has operated a plant in Cornwall since 1935.[citation needed]

Cornwall's industrial base has now shifted to a more diversified mix of manufacturing, automotive, high tech, food processing, and contact centres. The City hosts the largest SCM distribution centre in Canada, its massive 1.5 million square foot facility employing nearly 1000 people. Furthermore, StarTek and Teleperformance both operate call centres in Cornwall, each of which provides in excess of 500 jobs. Cornwall's unemployment rate now hovers at 7.9%.[citation needed]

A 2006 study of similar Ontario municipalities ranks Cornwall as one of the highest taxed in almost all categories[3].

MoneySense magazine rated Cornwall as Canada's 102nd best city in May, 2008 (out of 154)[4].

[edit] Culture

Historic Cornwall Jail
Historic Cornwall Jail

The city of Cornwall hosts various festivals and special community events. These include the Canada Day festivities and the very popular "Lift Off" hot air balloon festival which drew over 50,000 people to Cornwall for the concerts and hot air balloons in 2006.

Cornwall is named after the county of Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Its flag also bears the insignia and colours of the flag of the Duchy of Cornwall.

[edit] Non-Profit Organizations

Cornwall is home to many local charities and non-profit organizations. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, Canadian Cancer Society, the Agapè Centre, Salvation Army, United Way and Canadian Red Cross all have offices in Cornwall.

[edit] Government

Cornwall's mayor is Bob Kilger. Cornwall is situated within the electoral district of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, which is represented provincially by MPP Jim Brownell (Liberal), and federally by MP Guy Lauzon (Conservative).

[edit] Education

Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School hosts grade 11 and 12 students and is one of the oldest schools in Canada to have not closed its doors, having celebrated its bicentennial in 2006.

St. Joseph's Secondary School is a part of the Catholic District Board and offers French Immersion education. The newest high school in Cornwall is Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School[5] for grades 7 to 12, opened in response to overpopulation at St. Joseph's. Both schools offer French Immersion education.

Cornwall also has two French high schools: l'École secondaire publique l'Héritage, and l’École secondaire catholique La Citadelle.

École secondaire publique l'Héritage is part of the Conseil des écoles publique de l'est de l'Ontario and is home to grade 7 through 12 students.

Of note in Cornwall is the number of high schools for a relatively small city. Due to the culturally diverse demographic base in Cornwall, the city is home to three English public, two English Catholic, and one of each French public and French Catholic high schools for a total of seven.

Several Cornwall area high schools figured in a report published by the Canadian Fraser Institute (April 2007). The report ranked schools by student performance in reading, writing and math. Seven out of ten area schools scored 50% or less in the study. Out of 719 Ontario schools, l'Ecole secondaire catholique La Citadelle, held the top spot for Cornwall placing 208th, with a score of 7.3 out of 10. [6]

Census results from Statistics Canada[7] indicate that only 1 in 4 working age adults (20 - 64 years) finished high school. The same body of statistics do however infer a recent trend among Cornwall residents to complete high school as well as undertake post secondary studies.

Cornwall has many public and Catholic elementary schools, including Gladstone Public School, East Front Public School, Viscount Alexander Public School, Immaculate Conception, St. Peter's, and a number of others. The oldest elementary school, Central Public School opened its doors in 1816.

A campus of St. Lawrence College is situated in Cornwall. The St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences is located on the College campus, and, among other academic and vocational offerings, provides an Environmental Technician program. The St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences is a research centre that carries out ecotoxicological studies on large river systems and in particular, the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River ecosystem.

Cornwall is home to the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Control Operations (École des opérations de contrôle aérospatial des Forces canadiennes) also known as CFSACO[8]. Nav Canada also conducts training of civilian air traffic controllers in Cornwall at the Nav Canada Training and Conference Centre.

[edit] Environment

Cornwall does not enjoy a positive environmental reputation as a result of decades of heavy industrial pollution, the legacy of which is a riverfront contaminated by mercury, zinc, lead, and copper[9], soil contaminated by coal tar and byproducts[10] , and most evidently, "Big Ben": a 45 acre, 80 metre tall dumpsite within the city filled with wood bark, paper mill sludge, demolition waste and asbestos, and the proposed site for the dumping of coal tar contaminated soil from elsewhere in the city.

Industrial emissions in the Cornwall area, have fuelled public health concern about respiratory disease and cancer. Health Canada[11] found the rate of hospitalization for asthma was approximately double that of cities such as Hamilton, Sudbury and Windsor. Further research, showed that infants under two years of age had four times the expected hospital admission rate for asthma. Lung and male rectal cancer rates were also elevated in comparison with the rest of the province.

In addition to industrial pollution, Cornwall is one of only two cities left in the Province of Ontario with only primary sewage treatment facilities.

The shutdown of the Courtaulds rayon fiber operation (1992) and the Domtar paper mill (2006) have been a significant factor in the city's improved air quality. Cornwall now consistently ranks in the top 10 of 40 monitored communities across Ontario.

In 2006, the city updated its Strategic Plan including the objective, to develop an environmentally sustainable community.[citation needed]

In 2007, a former city councillor, Naresh Bhargava, began working with the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences on a project called the Community Carbon Reduction Initiative. City council has provided $5,000 in start-up funding for the project.[citation needed] Earlier progress in energy conservation was made in the 1990's when a co-generation plant went into operation that provides 4% to 6% of the city's daily electrical needs while at the same time, heating a number of buildings including both hospital sites. Cornwall also converted all of its traffic signals in 2002 to energy efficient LEDs that have reduced power usage by more than 600,000 kW, enough to light close to 70 homes. The data was contained in a report prepared by the city's public works department.

[edit] Transportation

With a fleet of 35 buses, Cornwall Transit serves the community 6 days per week (excluding holidays) on 4 fixed routes and several supplementary "rush hour" routes. In addition there is an on demand "Handi-Transit" service for the disabled -- Cornwall Transit also contracts taxi service at a flat rate to provide transportation for Handi-Transit registrants who are ambulatory.

Cornwall Transit claims that about 1.3 million passengers are transported per year (roughly 4,500 person trips, per day of operation) which would be a surprise to the casual observer, as buses rarely have more than half a dozen passengers at any one time.[12]. The city transit system has overall low ridership, due in part to the inconvenient 40 minute service, circuitous routes and the location of bus stops. As well the city lost provincially funded school bus contracts ($1 million per year) to private operators. Ironically this resulted in heavy provincial subsidies being required to maintain operations -- over $600,000 in 2006.

The Government of Ontario pays $750,000,000 (up from $693 million in 2005) [2] province-wide each year for private operators to transport school students.[citation needed]

[edit] Cornwall Public Inquiry

In February 2006, Comm. Normand Glaude began hearing evidence at the Cornwall Public Inquiry. The commission is examining the response of public institutions to allegations of historic abuse of children in the area over the past several decades. To date, the inquiry has heard from dozens of witnesses including many victims and alleged victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Some of the institutions being examined include the Cornwall Community Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Children's Aid Society and the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese. Glaude has granted standing to more than a dozen parties, including institutions and individuals attached to the issues of abuse. At the end of the inquiry, which is expected to run at least through the end of 2008, Glaude will write a report about what he believes took place in Cornwall over the past 50 years and how institutions can better respond to abuse allegations in the future.

The inquiry has a website where visitors can view transcripts of daily proceedings. Hearings are also broadcast in real time via the web. The inquiry's website address is http://www.cornwallinquiry.ca.

[edit] Sports

Cornwall has been home to a variety of sports teams, the most notable of which was the Cornwall Royals hockey team which played in both the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League before moving to Newmarket in 1992. The Royals won the Memorial Cup in 1972, 1980 and 1981. The Cornwall Colts are the current Junior A team playing in the Central Junior A Hockey League. They finished 6th in the 2007-08 season. Cornwall hosted the Ontario Winter Games and Special Olympics some years ago, and the City the 2008 Royal Bank Cup for Junior A hockey teams. The Cornwall Colts finished third in the series winning 2 of 5 games.

[edit] Notable people

Some of the more famous people to hail from the Cornwall area include:


[edit] Media

[edit] Radio

[edit] Television

[edit] Print

  • Cornwall Standard Freeholder is the city's main daily newspaper, and is managed by Osprey Media, a division of Quebecor.
  • Le journal de Cornwall[14] is the city's main francophone newspaper.
  • Seaway News[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ 5 Star Flags
  2. ^ Cornwall Population Stats Canada
  3. ^ Tax Rate Survey
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School
  6. ^ Fraser Institute
  7. ^ Education Stats
  8. ^ CFSACO
  9. ^ International Joint Commission Assessment
  10. ^ Environment Canada
  11. ^ Investigating Human Exposure to Contaminants in the Environment (Published by Health Canada)
  12. ^ Mid-Sized Transit Service Helps Change Thinking About Natural Gas
  13. ^ TV Cogeco
  14. ^ Le journal de Cornwall
  15. ^ Seaway News

[edit] External links