Without warning, Drummondville and the neighboring municipalities have won the status of census metropolitan area (CMA), that is to say a region of more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Until then, Quebec had six CMAs: Montreal, Quebec, Gatineau, Saguenay, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke. This is the first addition to this select club since Sherbrooke in 1986, says Statistics Canada.
A CMA is made up of a populated core surrounded by adjacent municipalities with a high degree of integration with the core, particularly with regard to commuting between home and work. The whole forms a coherent whole where at least 100,000 people live.
Located in Centre-du-Québec, Drummondville is located halfway between Montreal and Quebec on Highway 20, the province’s main highway.
Far from being a bureaucratic designation without impact, this status is the culmination of 40 years of work and the confirmation of its spectacular economic recovery. Better, an institutional recognition which opens new horizons.
“As an economist, we focus more on the major centers when it comes time to take the economic pulse of Quebec,” explains Noëlle Boulais-PRésault, economist at Desjardins who signed the most recent regional portrait of the Centre-du-Québec region. .
“It’s not trivial to say that we find ourselves in metropolitan areas like Montreal and Quebec,” said Mayor Stéphanie Lacoste over the phone.
“It is interesting to see this achievement recognized, especially since it will allow us to have better data. Administratively, when our teams are working, we will be able to have better data for decision-making, to plan projects and to develop the territory. »
Drummondville has often been an in-between. For example, the regional or national media cover its news sporadically, from Sherbrooke or Trois-Rivières. It has no print daily, although local media L’Express and Vingt55 provide continuous coverage on the Net. His city does not have a formal university unlike other CMAs, although it has had a UQTR campus since 2016.
This could change if we improve the university offer there, ”she says.
In terms of demands, the region is mobilizing for the renovation of its hospital, which is considered obsolete. “We are in the process of having a new regional hospital with university training, said Mayor Lacoste. We want the hospital to serve as a gateway to attracting healthcare professionals. With a university component, young people in the field would come to study here and fill the available positions. »
The “funniest town in Quebec”, as the defunct satirical magazine Croc dubbed it, has come a long way.
Mono-industrial at the time, Drummondville watched helplessly as its textile factories closed in the 1950s to 1970s, hit hard by deindustrialization like Sorel-Tracy and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
According to figures compiled by Professor Emeritus Mario Polèse of INRS Urbanisation, 90% of manufacturing jobs in the city were concentrated in textiles in 1971. Most of these jobs subsequently disappeared with the abandonment of tariff barriers.
Then, it was the beginning of taking charge of its destiny: creation of the Drummondville Economic Development Society (SDED) in 1984, election of Francine Ruest-Jutras as mayor and emergence of economic flagships.
Today, Drummondville residents manufacture light bulbs (Siemens), personal hygiene products (Essity/Tena and Fempro), school buses (MicroBird Girardin), waterproofing membranes (Soprema), container boxes (Cascades ), range hoods (Venmar), rubber tracks (Soucy Group), mechanical and hydraulic power transmission components (Canimex) and bacon (Olymel).
“There is a capacity for consultation that we do not see elsewhere, says, admiringly, Professor Frédéric Laurin, who teaches in the MBA program at UQTR. Local businesses have extended several million for the UQTR campus in Drummondville and for the CNIMI [National Integrated Center for Intelligent Manufacturing], a transfer and research center whose mission is to popularize manufacturing 4.0 within SMEs. Some 2,000 students continue their university studies in Centre-du-Québec.
“Gradually, expanding manufacturing companies managed to attract people from elsewhere,” continues the professor. The positions are so interesting that it has attracted all sorts of profiles to Drummondville, despite its unremarkable reputation. »
He laughs well who laughs last, it seems.
1950-1970 Decline of the textile industry with mass factory closures
1979 Publication of the first issue of the satirical magazine Croc, which makes the city its Turkish face
1984Creation of the Drummondville Economic Development Corporation
1984Opening of the first Soprema plant (approximately 600 jobs in 2023)
1987Election as mayor of Francine Ruest-Jutras. She will stay there for 26 years
1997Centre-du-Québec becomes an autonomous administrative region
2006Inauguration of the section of the A55 north of the A20, linking Trois-Rivières to Drummondville
2016Opening of the campus of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR)
2022Opening of the second university pavilion, the Integrated National Center for Intelligent Manufacturing (CNIMI)
2023-2028 Doubling of the A55 lanes, between Sainte-Eulalie, to the south, and Bécancour, to the north