Encyclopedia
St. Catharines is the largest city in the Niagara Region in southern
Ontario,
Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land. It lies 51 kilometres south of
Toronto across
Lake Ontario and is 19 kilometres inland from the international boundary with the
United States of America along the
Niagara River. It is the northern entrance of the
Welland Canal.
St. Catharines carries the nickname "The Garden City" due to its 1,000 acres of meticulously groomed parks, gardens and trails. It is sometimes nicknamed
St. Kitts or
St. Cats.
Manufacturing is the city's dominant industry, as noted by the
heraldic motto, "Industry and Liberality".
General Motors operates two plants in the city and up until recently was the city's largest employer, an honour now held by the
District School Board of Niagara.
Foster-Wheeler and
TRW also operate plants in the city, though in recent years employment has shifted from heavy industry and manufacturing to services.
St. Catharines lies on one of the main telecommunications backbones between Canada and the
United States, and as a result a number of
call centres operate in the city. Combined, call centres employ the largest percentage of St. Catharines residents. NuComm International, a Canadian call centre operator, is headquartered in
downtown St. Catharines.
History
The city was first settled by Loyalists in the 1780s. The first settlers, Sergeant Jacob Dittrick and Private John Hainer of Butler's Rangers, came to the area where Dick's Creek met Twelve Mile Creek. Dick's Creek was named after another early settler, Richard Pierpoint, a native of Bundu . Pierpoint was commonly known as Captain Dick. This part of the settlement eventually became the centre of town. Native trails were used as travel routes, resulting in present day radial road pattern from the city centre.
The first business, a goods storehouse owned by Robert Hamilton, was established around 1783. The first mill, Crown Mills, was opened in 1786. The surrounding land was surveyed, and townships created, between 1787 and 1789. The small settlement was known at the time as "The Twelve".
In 1797, the first inn was built by Thomas Adams, located on the east side of Ontario Street next to what is now St. Paul Street. It became a community meeting place and stagecoach rest stop. In 1798, "The Twelve" became known as "Shipman's Corners", after the inn's new owner, Paul Shipman. According to some sources, St. Paul Street - the main route in and out of the city at the time - was named after him as well.
As
Shipman's Corners, the town was visited by
Laura Secord during the
War of 1812, en route to warn
James Fitzgibbon of the advancing Americans. She was travelling with her niece Elizabeth Secord, but Elizabeth was exhausted at that point and ceased her journey there. Laura Secord continued on to warn Fitzgibbon successfully.
In 1808, the first name "St. Catharines" appeared for the first time on a survey, named after Robert Hamilton's wife, Catharine Hamilton. In 1817, the post office was established with the name "St. Catherines" , but by 1821, the name was officially "St. Catharines".
The first
Welland Canal was constructed from 1824-33 behind what is now known as St. Paul Street, using Twelve Mile and Dick's Creek.
William Hamilton Merritt worked tirelessly to promote the ambitious venture, both by raising funds and by enlisting government support. The canal established St. Catharines as the hub of commerce and industry for the
Niagara Peninsula.
Merritt would also play a role in making St. Catharines an important place of
abolitionist activity. In 1855, the British Methodist Episcopal Church and Salem Chapel was established at the corner of Geneva and North streets, on land granted to the congregation by Merritt in the early 1840s. The area became known to escaped slaves as a place of "refuge and rest", and cemented it as the final terminus on the
Underground Railroad.
The Town of St. Catharines was incorporated in 1845. St. Catharines was incorporated as a city in 1876.
Geography and climate
St. Catharines enjoys a unique
micro-climate because of the moderating influence of
Lake Erie and
Lake Ontario and the sheltering effect of the
Niagara Escarpment to the south. As a result, the city can record a large number of frost-free days in the Winter. The summer season is pre-dominately hot and humid, with the average temperature peaking at 27°
C in July, but can feel closer to 40 °C with the humidex factor.
The complex and extensive glacial history of the
Niagara Peninsula has resulted in similarly complex soil stratigraphy in the area occupied by the city today. St. Catharines was once at the base of a glacial lake known as
Glacial Lake Iroquois, which deposited thick layers of clay between the Escarpment and Lake Ontario. As a result of these factors, the city's soil is particularly conducive to fruit growing and is capable of producing grapes that are used to make award-winning wines. Three wineries operate in the city's west-end: Henry of Pelham, Hernder Estates and Harvest Estates.
Since the opening of the first
Welland Canal in 1829, the city has seen four different canal systems, whether modified or newly constructed, carved into its geographical landscape. The fourth and present-day canal forms the majority of the city's eastern boundary. The first three of the city's canals have largely been buried, portions of it beneath the present-day Highway 406 and
Queen Elizabeth Way. Other remnants of the original canals can still be seen in various locations throughout the city, many of which are hidden within forested areas designated as city parks. There has been a growing movement in recent years to restore the original routing of the Welland Canal through the city. The restored waterway and locks would be open to pleasure craft and create a new tourist attraction within the city.
Major parks
- Short Hills Provincial Park - Ontario's first provincial park, it is located in the Southwest portion of the city along the Niagara Escarpment.
- Burgoyne Woods - A 122-acre wooded area and recreational park located near the Downtown core.
- Happy Rolph’s Bird Sanctuary - A 15-acre park on the shores of Lake Ontario in the community of Port Weller. It is home to hundreds of native and migratory birds and features an exotic collection of flowering Rhododendrons. An onsite petting farm is operated by the city from Victoria Day to Thanksgiving Weekend. A trail running throughout the park leads to a peaceful waterfront memorial to Canadian victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- Ontario Jaycee Gardens - Overlooking the Henley Rowing Course, this is the city's largest horticultural park with more than 21 acres of meticulessly landscaped gardens and flower displays. The park exists on land that once featured the Third Welland Canal. The former entrance to the canal can still be seen at the North-West end of the park.
- Walker Arboretum - Located along the hillside of Rodman Hall and the Twelve Mile Creek below, the original owner of this estate was Thomas Rodman Merritt, son of William Hamilton Merritt. In the late 1800's, an English landscape designer named Samuel Richardson was hired by Merritt to tend the grounds. As a result, the arboretum is an extensive, rambling garden with rare conifers which benefit from an exceptional micro-climate. It boasts one of the largest Chinese Empress trees in Canada.
Government and politics
St. Catharines is governed by a mayor and city council of twelve city councillors, with two councillors representing each of the six municipal wards in the city. A city councillor is also elected by the council as a whole to serve as deputy mayor, who only fills the role should the elected mayor not be available.
St. Catharines City Council meets every Monday and is open to participation by the community. Matters put forwarded are voted on by members of city council; the mayor presides over council debate and serves very much like the speaker, and as a result only votes in the case of a tie. After 2006, municipal elections will be in November every four years rather than the previous three. Unlike most cities its size, city councillors only serve on a part-time basis and continue with their non-political careers in the community. Only the mayor is elected to a full-time position. St. Catharines City Hall is located downtown on Church Street.
Tim Rigby has been Mayor of St. Catharines since 1997.
St. Catharines uses a council-manager government, and as a result a Chief Administrative Officer is appointed by council to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city and its departments. The CAO, in effect, is the highest ranking municipal civil servant and has authority over the spending of municipal tax dollars. The CAO advises council on policy matters and acts as liaison between the administrative staff and elected officials. Some of the CAOs duties include assisting in the creation of the municipal budget, and ensuring that municipal funds are spent in a responsible manner. The current CAO of St. Catharines is B. Robert Puhach.
Residents of St. Catharines also elect six regional councillors to the Niagara Regional Council on an at-large basis. Unlike other Regional Municipalities in Ontario, regional councillors do not sit on city council and instead only represent at the regional level. Four school board trustees for the
District School Board of Niagara representing St. Catharines and
Niagara-on-the-Lake are elected, as well as and three trustees for the Niagara Catholic District School Board, two for five of St. Catharines' wards, and one for
Thorold and the Merriton Ward of St. Catharines. Regional councillors and school board trustees are elected at the same time, and on the same ballot, as the mayor and city councillors.
St. Catharines has one of the highest resident/representative ratios of any large city in Ontario. There are just under 7,000 people per elected municipal representative in St. Catharines, while
Oshawa has one representative per 13,500 people.
London, Ontario has one representative per 30,500 people, and
Toronto has one representative per 55,000 people. There has been recent discussion regarding a modification of the city/regional council arrangement, with the possibility of reducing city council to six full-time representatives and having the six regional councillors serve on city council. While there is growing support in the business community for such an arrangement, city council has been unreceptive to such ideas.
At the provincial level, St. Catharines is well-known for electing high-profile members of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Jim Bradley, the current member for St. Catharines and Ontario's longest serving Member of Provincial Parliament, is the current Minister of Tourism in the
Liberal government of
Dalton McGuinty, and served as Minister of Environment in the government of
David Peterson.
Peter Kormos, who represents the southern portions of the city as part of the Niagara Centre riding, is a prominent vocal member of the
Ontario New Democratic Party caucus and served previously as Minister of Justice in the
Bob Rae government.
From 1999 to 2003, during the premierships of
Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, St. Catharines was one of the few large cities in Ontario to not have at least one government member representing the city, as the
Progreessive Conservative-held ridings of Lincoln and St. Catharines—Brock were eliminated as a cost saving measure. Robert Welch, a long-time Deputy Premier of Ontario, represented the now-eliminated Lincoln and St. Catharines—Brock ridings throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
Federally, St. Catharines is one of the most bellwether of any riding in Canada, having only elected an opposition MP twice in its history.
Rick Dykstra is the current MP for St. Catharines and is a member of the
Conservative Party of Canada, which currently forms Canada's government. The southern portion of the city is included as part of the Welland riding, and is represented by
John Maloney, a
Liberal MP. Most federal representatives from St. Catharines have maintained a low profile on either the government or opposition backbenches. The exception was
Gilbert Parent, who served as
Speaker of the House for seven years while
Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister.
St. Catharines is the judicial seat of the Niagara North Judicial District of Ontario, Central West Region, which represents the northern half of the Niagara Region equivalent to historic
Lincoln County. The Superior Court of Justice is located on Church Street across from City Hall. A satellite court is located in
Grimsby. James Ramsey is the current Crown Attorney.
The city forms "1 District" of the
Niagara Regional Police Service. The NRPS headquarters are located on Church Street, with administrative offices on James Street and support services on Cushman Road.
Transportation
The most defining transportation icon of St. Catharines is the
Welland Canal, a
ship canal that runs 43.4 kilometres , passing through the city. Three of its locks are within city boundaries. The canal allows shipping vessels to traverse the 99.5
metre drop in altitute from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
The main access routes into and out of St. Catharines are served by two major
freeways. The
Queen Elizabeth Way runs east to west and the Highway 406 runs north to south . Prior to the construction of these freeways, St. Paul Street and Hartzel Road provided east-west and north-south access to the city.
Public transportation is served by the St. Catharines Transit Commission, which operates bus routes throughout the city and neighbouring Thorold.
All major routes converge at the St. Catharines Bus Terminal, which is located downtown within the heaquarters of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. The central station is also served by
Greyhound Lines and
Coach Canada, en route to Toronto and New York City and connecting it to major cities throughout Canada and the United States.
Though transportation by rail is becoming increasingly popular, the St. Catharines train station is largely underutilized, with car and bus travel being the dominant forms of transportation for the city. The station is located in its original building, outside the downcore core . It is served daily by
VIA Rail and
Amtrak trains connecting it to
Toronto and
New York City. A potential rail link with
GO Transit in the near future continues to be discussed in St. Catharines.
St. Catharines/Niagara District Airport services
general aviation as well as chartered
jetliner flights. It is located near the city's east-end in neighbouring
Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Trivia - St. Catharines was the first - and last remaining - location in the world to have a working
interurban electric
streetcar route, which ran between the city and
Merritton and was eventually extended to
Port Dalhousie in the north and
Thorold to the south. Like most streetcar routes throughout the world, it was decommissioned in the 1960s, and the right-of-way has since been converted to parks and trails.
Education
St. Catharines is home to
Brock University , a modern comprehensive university located on the Niagara Escarpment. A partnership between the university and the Ontario Grape and Wine Industry established the city as a centre for cool-climate grape and wine research. "Brock" is the only university in Canada to offer an Honours Bachelor of Science in Oenology and
Viticulture. It hosted the St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005, in which
Canadian wines outscored the best
French wines.
McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine is set to open a satellite campus in St. Catharines in 2007. The
Hamilton, Ontario-based university will educate 15 first-year medical students in the city's first-ever
med school.
Ridley College, located near the city's downtown core in the Western Hill neighbourhood, is a distinguished co-educational boarding and day school. It was established as a boys' school in 1889, and became co-educational in 1973.
A campus of the
Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology is located near the city east-end. The school's Horticultural Campus was once located on 360 Niagara Street in the 1970's-1990's but has since been relocated to
Niagara-on-the-Lake. One of its greatest teachers, R. Roy Forster, was recognized with the Order of Canada on April 14, 1999, for his work in creating the VanDusen Botanical Garden in
British Columbia.
The
District School Board of Niagara , responsible for managing a school system of nearly 119 faculties, contains 8 Secondary Schools in the city of St. Catharines.
The Niagara Catholic District School Board operates 3 Catholic Secondary Schools within the city.
Communities and development
St. Catharines' development history has resulted in a number of unique and distinct communities within the city. The historical area of St. Catharines consisted of nothing more than what is down the downtown core, with the remaining land being part of Louth Township on the West and Grantham Township on East. St. Catharines continued to steadily grow through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eventually annexing land to the southwest that would become Western Hill and Old
Glenridge, and to the east and north that would collectively become the central part of St. Catharines. In addition to the growth of St. Catharines, the Town of
Merritton and the Town of
Port Dalhousie existed as separate municipalities to the South and North of the city, each slowly growing their own residential base.
Along with the rest of Ontario, St. Catharines experienced explosive growth after
World War II. St. Catharines continued to annex Grantham Township as development continued, including the large swaths of land to the north known now as "The North End". St. Catharines would also absorb Merriton and Port Dalhousie in 1961, making them part of the city. During this time, St. Catharines nearly tripled in population.
With the formation of the Regional Municipality of Niagara in 1970, the portion of Louth Township East of Fifteen Mile Creek was transferred to the City of St. Catharines. This included the Eastern portion of the Hamlet of Rockway, as well as the Hamlet of Power Glen. The few remaining portions of Grantham Township in the Northeast corner of the area, including Port Weller, were also transferred to the city. With the new Louth Township lands belonging to the city, St. Catharines would begin two developments in the West-end - Martindale in 1983, and Vansickle in 1987. These developments are nearing completion. There was also a push to continue further expansion to the West in the late 1990s, but this has since been halted by
Ontario Greenbelt legislation.
The following distinct communities exist within St. Catharines:
It should be noted that not all land within the city is considered part of a community - areas of Grantham Township annexed prior to and immediately following World War 2 simply became the central core of St. Catharines, while undeveloped Louth Township lands are simply referred to as the western portion of the city.
Demographics
From the 2001 census, the racial makeup of St. Catharines was 92.2%
White, 1.5%
Black Canadian, 1.2% Aboriginal, 1.1%
Asian, 1.0%
mixed race, and 0.8%
Chinese. The remaining 3.2% of the population consists of Filipinos, Arabs, and other groups. Ageing has affected the city. Only 17.1% of the population is under 14, while those over 65 number 18%, bringing the average age of 40.3.
By far,
Christianity continues to be the dominant religion of the city. Some 81.0 percent of the population profess a Christian faith, the largest being various Protestant groups , followed by
Roman Catholicism , while the remaining consists of Orthodox, and independent Christian groups. Non-Christian groups are also present, namely Islam , Judaism , and Buddhism . . The remaining 16.5% report to be atheists .
Employment- Employment rate: 58.2%
- Unemployment rate: 6.5%
- Average earnings: $30,997
Top five employers:
Local media
Newspapers
Radio
- AM 610 - CKTB, news/talk
- AM 1220 - CHSC, oldies/multilingual
- FM 97.7 - CHTZ, active rock
- FM 103.7 - CFBU, Brock University campus radio
- FM 105.7 - CHRE , adult contemporary
In addition, numerous tourist and travel advisory stations are available off-air in the Niagara area.
Television
The Niagara region has no local television service of its own, although stations broadcasting from Toronto,
Hamilton and
Buffalo are available. In 2003, a local business consortium applied to the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a licence to operate , a community television station in St. Catharines. The application was denied by the CRTC in 2005, citing concerns about the group's business plan and its dependence on gaining audience share in the Toronto market. However, the organization has appealed to the
Cabinet of Canada and hopes to continue gaining support for local television in Niagara.
Online News
Sister cities
Sports and leisure
Hockey
St. Catharines entered into
Ontario Hockey Association Junior 'A' Hockey in 1943 as the
St. Catharines Falcons. In 1947, they became the Teepees and were affiliated with the
American Hockey League's Buffalo Bisons. When the
National Hockey League's
Chicago Black Hawks made the Bisons their number one farm team, they inherited the Teepees. In the 1960s, the Jr. 'A' team went deeply into debt to the Chicago Black Hawks, but continued as a successful franchise. The
Hamilton Fincups moved to St. Catharines in 1976 and played here for one year before moving back to Hamilton. The AHL St. Catharines Saints played in St. Catharines between 1982 and 1986, before being forced to re-locate to
Newmarket due to protests from the NHL
Buffalo Sabres. The St. Catharines Saints served as the farm team for the
Toronto Maple Leafs, and today are known as the
Toronto Marlies.
Today, the city's Junior 'B' Hockey team, appropriately named the
St. Catharines Falcons, play out of Jack Gatecliff Arena.
Rowing
Martindale Pond in St. Catharines'
Port Dalhousie is the site of the annual
Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, a world-class event that brings over 3,000 athletes from various nations to the city. The site hosted the FISA World Rowing Championships both in 1970 and in 1999. There are currently talks to bring the Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame to St. Catharines sometime in the near future. It is also home to the largest Rowing Club in the world. The Henley course is also home to the annual
CSSRA Championships, which draws hundreds of high school athletes from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Trails system
The city's trail system offers over 90 kilometres of accessible pathways that are suitable for walking, jogging, cycling, hiking and cross-country skiing.
- Bruce Trail - Canada's oldest and longest hiking trail, following the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Tobermory. A 20-kilometre section with associated side trails winds through St. Catharines.
- Merritt Trail - a segmented 11-kilometre trail that passes many of the old sections of the second Welland Canal and remnants of its locks.
- Waterfront Trail - follows the shore of Lake Ontario, connecting communities from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Brockville. The Port Dalhousie portion of the trail is a major highlight.
- Welland Canals Parkway - provides an uninterrupted 9-kilometre paved path for non-motorized traffic, along the scenic Welland Canal. It links with the waterfront trails of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Port Colbourne, and the Niagara Parkway to create the Greater Niagara Circle Route, measuring approximately 150 kilometres .
Whitewater park
A dedicated group of local paddlers and businesses is trying to bring a
Whitewater facility, suitable for hosting world-class kayaking events, to the City of St. Catharines. The proposed course would utilize the Wellandvale stretch of Twelve Mile Creek, near the downtown core. If made reality, the project would be Canada's first urban
Whitewater facility.
Plans for the facility were made public in
Toronto's bid to host the
2008 Summer Olympic Games. When Toronto lost the bid to
Beijing, the was created to keep the project alive. In September 2006, the
St. Catharines Standard reported that St. Catharines Hydro is in talks with
Ontario Power Generation to construct a small generating station adjacent to the proposed site of the Whitewater facility. The proposed Shickluna Generating Station would create electricity for up to 5,000 homes while regulating waterflow to the course. No formal agreement has been announced yet.
Arts and culture
Art galleries
runs a diverse program of exhibitions throughout the year, featuring the work of local, national and international artists. It also houses a permanent collection of over 850 works including paintings, photographs, sculptures and outdoor installations. Rodman Hall was a public-run gallery from 1960-2003 when financial issues provoked
Brock University to purchase the building. Today, it is affiliated with the Brock School of Fine and Performing Arts and continues to serve and welcome the public.
The is a not-for-profit, charitably registered, collective formed by local community artists and dedicated to serving the working artists and art-enthusiasts of Niagara. It runs a series of diverse exhibitions throughout the year involving abstract paintings, sculptures, new media installations and film screenings. Recently, the centre moved out of its former location on Bond St. to a newly renovated storefront building on St. Paul Street in the city's downtown.
Festivals
The was first presented to the city by representatives from the ethno cultural communities of Niagara over 35 years ago. From that first festival was created the
Folk Arts Council of St. Catharines, which continues to run its festival each year throughout the month of May and concludes with "Folk Arts in the Park", which takes place in Montebello Park in the city's downtown.
The is a non-profit organization established in June 2004. Every year this organization holds activities throughout the year, supports Asian related clubs, businesses and fandom. It also holds a year end festival in July. . Additionally, the organization donates proceeds to charities based within the city.
The is a non-profit organization that presents three popular wine festivals in St. Catharines and Niagara during the year. The Niagara Icewine Festival , the Niagara New Vintage Festival , and the Niagara Wine Festival , which is the largest of the festivals, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the region each year. This event known by most locals simply as "Grape and Wine" attracts young and old varying from partiers to wine connoisseurs.
The SCENE Music Festival is one-day event held in various clubs and pubs downtown. Rock, indie, pop, singer-songwriter, ska, punk, metal, and many other genres are represented by bands such as
