page_title: Rouyn-Noranda
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rouyn-Noranda / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Landsat 7 Visible Color image of Rouyn Noranda QC from an altitude of 25 km.
context_page_description: Rouyn-Noranda is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada.
  The city of Rouyn-Noranda is a coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality and census division of Quebec of the same name. Their geographical code is 86.
context_section_description: The city of Rouyn (named for Jean-Baptiste Rouyn, a captain in the Régiment Royal Roussillon of Louis-Joseph de Montcalm) appeared after copper was discovered in 1917. Noranda (a contraction of "North Canada") was created later around the Horne mine and foundry. Both were officially constituted as cities in 1926, then merged in 1986.
  Since 1966, Rouyn and Noranda constitute the capital of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region. It is also the seat of Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) since 1983.
  The population tends to increase or decrease dramatically depending on the economic situation. The city's population dropped by 5 per cent between the 1996 and 2001 census, before increasing slightly by 0.8 per cent for the 2006 census. This more closely parallels the demographic patterns of Northern Ontario than those of Quebec during this period. Rouyn-Noranda also has other cultural affiliations with Northern Ontario, being the only municipality in Quebec that holds a membership in the Francophone Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
  The Roman Catholic diocese of Rouyn-Noranda was established on February 9, 1974, by Pope Paul VI, with Mgr. Jean-Guy Hamelin as its first bishop.  It is part of the Metropolitan Province of Gatineau. Mgr. Dorylas Moreau was appointed as bishop on November 30, 2001, replacing Mgr. Hamelin. On September 15, 2003, a decree moved the cathedral from Saint-Michel-Archange Church to Saint-Joseph Church.
caption: Rouyn Noranda seen from space.
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