Nédélec is a township municipality in western Quebec, Canada, in the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality.

Name

The name of the municipality recalls the name of Jean-Marie Nédélec who was an oblate and a missionary with the Algonquins in the region. His last name is from the Breton word Nedeleg which means Christmas.

History

By 1895, a general store was supplying the many logging camps of the area. The first permanent settlers arrived in 1909, the same year the township and township municipality were formed. They were both named after Jean-Marie Nédélec (1834-1896) who was a missionary among the Algonquin First Nations of Lake Timiskaming and Lake Abitibi from 1867 to 1869 and from 1892 to 1896.

On October 7, 1995, the unorganized territory of Roulier, named after Ulric Roulier who was priest at Nédélec in the mid-1930s, was added to the municipality.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Nédélec had a population of 340 living in 152 of its 168 total private dwellings, a change of -4.5% from its 2016 population of 356. With a land area of 371.49 km (143.43 sq mi), it had a population density of 0.9/km (2.4/sq mi) in 2021.

Historical census populations – Nédélec

Year Pop. ±% 1921 1,002 —     1931 654 −34.7% 1941 639 −2.3% 1951 990 +54.9% 1956 1,075 +8.6% 1961 1,019 −5.2%	Year Pop. ±% 1966 957 −6.1% 1971 719 −24.9% 1976 619 −13.9% 1981 553 −10.7% 1986 490 −11.4% 1991 457 −6.7%	Year Pop. ±% 1996 474 +3.7% 2001 429 −9.5% 2006 416 −3.0% 2011 403 −3.1% 2016 356 −11.7% 2021 340 −4.5%
Population counts are not adjusted for boundary changes. Source: Statistics Canada

Mother tongue (2021):

• English as first language: 10.3%
• French as first language: 88.2%
• English and French as first language: 0%
• Other as first language: 1.5%

See also

• List of anglophone communities in Quebec
• List of township municipalities in Quebec