Murdochville shows how a town can live on after being abandoned by industry
Kevin Dougherty | CBC News | Posted: July 22, 2018 10:14 PM | Last Updated: July 22, 2018
Despite its small population, the town has golf, skiing and swimming facilities that draw tourists
Inaugurated in 1953, Murdochville began as a company town in Quebec's Gaspé region, built to house workers and their families drawn to the area by the town's copper mine.
Now celebrating its 65th anniversary, the town lives off tourism, offering low-cost accommodation and recreational facilities for both summer and winter activities.
Gaspé Copper Mines Ltd. wound down and finally closed its mining operations in the town in 1999.
During its operation, Murdochville experienced three miners strikes between 1957 and 1978.
The seven-month strike in 1957 was a significant event for organized labour in the province, galvanizing opposition to Quebec's then anti-union premier Maurice Duplessis, and drawing support from intellectuals, including a law professor from Montreal named Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
After the mine closed, its well-paid, unionized jobs were replaced by call-centre jobs, then wind-energy projects, with windmills now visible on the surrounding peaks.
Tourism is now the mainstay of the community. Despite its small population of just below 700 people, the town boasts a golf course, a swimming pool, a recreational centre with an arena and a ski hill.
Murdochville, just under 100 kilometres west of Gaspé town, had a population of 5,000 at its height in 1974.
Mayor Délisca Ritchie-Roussy said in a telephone interview that winter sports have been a boon for the town's economy, with people buying country houses in the area to take advantage of skiing and snowmobiling.
"There is no traffic here," said Ritchie-Roussy, who came to the town 47 years ago as a school teacher and who has been mayor since 2004.
"It is a very pleasant place," she said.
Some called for bulldozing
The people still living in Murdochville were divided after mining operations ceased, with some calling for efforts to diversify the local economy, while others proposed bulldozing the town and compensating residents.
Gaspé Copper Mines was a subsidiary of Noranda Mines Inc., whose then-CEO James Murdoch gave the town its name.
Copper deposits were first discovered in the region by the Miller brothers, of Gaspé, in 1921. But it wasn't until after the Second World War that Noranda decided to develop the site.