Saint-Laurent (Montreal) 5.44

Saint-Laurent is a borough of the city of Montreal, the largest in area of Montreal's boroughs. Prior to its 2002 merger, it was a city.HistorySaint-Laurent was founded as the Parish of Saint-Laurent in 1720.Merger and proposed demergerThe City of Saint-Laurent or Ville Saint-Laurent was merged into the City of Montreal on January 1, 2002, by the Parti Québécois government. On June 20, 2004, the demerger forces lost a referendum on the issue of recreating Saint-Laurent as a city. While 75% of the turnout voted to demerge, this only represented 28.5% of the total eligible voting population, falling short of the requisite 35% as set by the province.GeographyNeighbourhoods within this borough include Bois-Franc and Norgate.The borough has two municipal districts: Norman-McLaren and Côte-de-Liesse.DemographicsSaint-Laurent is one of Quebec's most ethnically mixed areas, with some 166 ethnicities reported to live there in relative harmony.Mother tongue figures from the 2011 census of Canada are: French, English, non-official languages In 2011 the immigrant population was 45.4 percent, according to the National Household Survey by Statistics Canada. It is one of the boroughs of Montreal with the highest concentration of Arab Canadians.Linguistic trendEconomySaint-Laurent is the second-largest employment hub within the metropolitan region, after downtown Montréal.Air Canada Centre, also known as La Rondelle ("The Puck" in French), is Air Canada's headquarters, located on the grounds of Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and in Saint-Laurent. In 1990 the airline announced that it was moving its headquarters from Downtown Montreal to the airport to cut costs.