Brossard

Brossard is a suburb of Montreal; it is a residential city (with some 14-floor residential towers) with large commercial zones (Taschereau Boulevard, the Champlain Mall (Mail Champlain), Panama Avenue, Lapinière Boulevard, Carnaval Mall (Mail Carnaval), Quartier DIX30 ) and an industrial zone. Parks are scattered throughout the city, including Parc écologique des Sansonnets .

History

Brossard was merged into the city of Longueuil on January 1 , 2002 as a result of municipal reorganization in Quebec . Opposition to this amalgamation, during the following years, was headed by Louise Brossard, Gilles Larin and Pierre Senécal^[1] and resulted in a municipal referendum that took place on June 20 , 2004 . 38.70% of the 50,539 qualified voters voted YES for demerger^[2], which met the requirements (35% or more of total voting population) needed for de-amalgamation. As a result, Brossard would continue to be a borough of the city of Longueuil only until the end of 2005 .

On January 1 , 2006 , Brossard was reconstituted as a city with Jean-Marc Pelletier as the new mayor. However, Brossard still remains part of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil and thus, Brossard sits on the agglomeration council (conseil d'agglomération) which determines certain powers of reconstituted cities.

Demographics

Brossard is a multi-ethnic city; more than 47% are foreign-born. It is the only official multi-cultural city in Québec.

Significant minority groups:

• Chinese : 11,375 (16.3% of population)
• Black : 2,615 (4.0% of population)
• South Asian : 2,590 (4.0% of population)
• Arab : 1,660 (2.6% of population)
• Southeast Asian : 1,535 (2.4% of population)
• Latin-American : 1,320 (2% of population)
• Middle Eastern : 680 (1% of population)
• Filipino : 450 (0.7% of population)

Transportation

Autoroutes

•   Autoroute 10 (Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est)
•   Autoroute 15
•   Autoroute 20 (Autoroute Jean-Lesage)
•   Autoroute 30 (Autoroute de l'Acier)

Route 132/Autoroute 15 (multiplex) northbound before Champlain Bridge exit 53, in Brossard.

Provincial routes

•   Route 132 (serviced by Marie-Victorin Boulevard) which multiplexes with:
  •  Autoroute 15, from La Prairie until south of the Champlain Bridge interchange
  •  Autoroute 20, from north of the Champlain Bridge interchange until Saint-Lambert
•   Taschereau Boulevard (Route 134)

Structures

•   Champlain Bridge (Autoroutes 10, 15 and 20 multiplex )

Other important roads

• Rome Boulevard
• Milan Boulevard
• Pelletier Boulevard
• Lapinière Boulevard
• San Francisco-Tisserand-Stravinski Avenues loop
• Provencher Boulevard
• Chemin des Prairies
• Auteuil Avenue

Public transit

The Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) , one of the larger public transit carriers in the Montreal metropolitan region, services much of Brossard's territory as well as the rest of the South Shore . Terminus Brossard-Panama and Chevrier Park-n-Ride incentive parking lot are two of RTL's heavily used bus terminals located in Brossard.

Trivia

Brossard:

• Has the largest vehicle purchase center in Quebec "Le Complexe de l'Auto Rive-Sud" .
• Has about 37 km of biking paths with access to parks and rest areas across the city.
• Has its new municipal library building connected to its city hall building via an indoor passageway.
• Has different sections in which the street names start with the same letter.
• Does not have a cemetery due to the water table being too high in most of the city. (An attempt was made in the 1970's by René Désourdy of the Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours parish but it failed.)
• Hosted the 2004 Canadian Little League Baseball Tournament.
• NHL Hockey Hall of Fame member and Team Canada hockey player Jean Ratelle made his home in Brossard during his career with the New York Rangers .