St-Boniface (or Saint-Boniface) is a city ward and neighborhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Along with being the center of the Franco-Manitoban community, it ranks as the largest francophone community in Western Canada.
It features landmarks such as the St. Boniface Cathedral, Boulevard Provencher, the Provencher Bridge, Esplanade Riel, St. Boniface Hospital, the Université de Saint-Boniface, and the Royal Canadian Mint.
The area covers east-central and southeast Winnipeg, MB, including le Vieux Saint-Boniface (‘Old St. Boniface’), and consists of the neighborhoods of Norwood West, Norwood East, Windsor Park, Niakwa Park, Niakwa Place, Southdale, Southland Park, Royalwood, Sage Creek, and Island Lakes, among others, plus a large industrial area. The ward is represented by Matt Allard, a Winnipeg City Council member, and corresponds to the neighborhood clusters of St-Boniface East and West. The population was 58,520, according to the Canada 2016 Census.
History
Succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European exploration. It is an area of historic Ojibwe occupation.
Fur traders and European mercenaries hired by Thomas Douglas and Lord Selkirk to protect his fledgling Red River Colony were among the area’s first European settlers. With the founding of a Roman Catholic mission in 1818, St. Boniface began its role in Canadian religious, political, and cultural history: as mother parish for many French settlements in Western Canada; as the birthplace of Louis Riel and fellow Métis who struggled to obtain favorable terms for Manitoba’s entry into Confederation; and as a focus of resistance to controversial 1890 legislation to alter Manitoba’s school system and abolish French as an official language in the province (see Manitoba Schools Question). Bed Bug Exterminator Winnipeg
French-speaking religious orders, including the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (better known as the Grey Nuns), who arrived in 1844, founded the early educational, cultural, and social-service institutions, such as St. Boniface Hospital, the first in Western Canada. In addition, early French-speaking missionary Catholic priests in the region founded the Collège de Saint-Boniface (1818) to teach Latin and general humanities to the local boys; it is now the Université de Saint-Boniface.
The early economy was oriented toward agriculture. However, industrialization arrived in the early 20th century. The 165-acre (67 ha) Union Stockyards, developed 1912–13, became the largest livestock exchange in Canada and a center of the meat-packing and -processing industry. By the early 1900s, numerous light and heavy industries were established. Redevelopment of the Stockyards site as a housing and retail area by Olexa Developments of Calgary is scheduled for 2020.
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