QuébecPolitique.com
- Le Québec:
Quebec's Territory
FR EN ESIntroduction
Quebec
is located at the north east of North America. It's surrounded by the United States of
America in the south, Ontario in the south west, James Bay and Hudson Bay in the west, the
Strait of Hudson and Ungava Bay in the north, Labrador in the north east (the border
between Quebec and Labrador, as it has been delimited by the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council of London in 1927, have never been recognized by the Government of Quebec),
and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and New Brunswick in the east. In the Gulf of Saint
Lawrence, it includes the Anticosti Island and the îles de la Madeleine (Magdalen
Islands).
Quebec has an area of 1 700 000 km2, ce qui le place au 17è rang mondial, half of it's surface is covered by forest and it encompasses more than 1 million lakes and waterways. It is three times as big as France, five times as big as Japan and seven times as big as the United Kingdom. Such big area, combined with a small population, produces a low population density: 4.7 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Physical Geography
Quebec is divided into three geological regions: the Canadian Shield (or Laurentian Plateau), which occupies 95% of the territory, the Saint Lawrence Lowlands, extending along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River between the Great Lakes to Charlevoix, and the Appalachians, a chain of mountains on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River that extends south to Alabama.
The Saint Lawrence River, one of the most important rivers in North America and the world, runs accross Quebec, from west to east. Roughly 1 200 km in length, it is one of the leading navigable waterways of the world and the main river route in North America. It's ports can be accessed during the whole year, even in winter.
Climate
Quebec's climate varies, from south to north, from moderate to arctic. Except for eastern Quebec, because of the effect of the sea, Quebec has a continental climate. More precisely, it has three types of climate: humid continental, south of the 50th parallel (a hot summer, especially in July, a cold winter and abundant precipitation), subarctic, between the 50th and 58th parallels (colder, longer winters, shorter, cooler summers, less precipitation) and arctic, in the far north (rigorous winter, brief annual thaw, continuous permafrost).
Regions
Quebec is divided into 17 administrative regions. They have benn adopted in 1966, when the provincial government created 10 standard socio-economic regions, an attempt to put an end to the proliferation of ministerial administrative divisions. In 1987, the regions' borders have been redrawn, to conform to new local realities, and six new regions were created, for a total of 16 regions. Finally, in 1997, the seventeenth region, Centre-du Québec (Central Quebec) was created.
Source: Department of Industry and Trade
(http://www.mic.gouv.qc.ca/)
Last update: November 11, 2004