History

Our organization


Tourisme Sept-Îles is a non-profit organization which, for more than forty years, has organized, developed and designed, in partnership with local stakeholders, the tourism industry in Sept-Îles. 

 

At Tourisme Sept-Îles, you receive much more than a warm welcome and a tourist information bureau. It also handles matters of promotion, advertising and marketing, as well as services such as reception desks and city tours for tourists. It lends support to event planning, administers and coordinates activities offered by the tourist information bureau, as well as its various infrastructures: campgrounds, Sept-Îles Archipelago Kiosk and Lac des Rapides outdoor recreation centre. 

 

History of Sept-Îles

 

Explored in August 1535 by the renowned navigator Jacques Cartier, the bay of Sept-Îles has since become the setting of a vibrant and hospitable city. Its rich past has forged its features, in addition to turning it into a major urban hub. Tradition coexists with the contemporary, sustained by European-Québécois and Innu cultures that will reveal their treasures to you.

 

Owing to their enviable geographic features, the archipelago and the bay of Sept-Îles have been frequented for millennia. Its past has been shaped by the harnessing of the natural resources found here. Fur-bearing animals (e.g. beaver, marten, fox), various species of fish (e.g. cod, herring, mackerel, salmon) and marine mammals (e.g. harbour and harp seals, fin and blue whales), coniferous forests, rivers and mineral resources are what have made Sept-Îles what it is today.

 

From a fur trading post and fishing village it was in the late 19th century, Sept-Îles morphed into a modern city in the 1950s when the Iron Ore Company of Canada set up its operations here. This firm was the primary contractor for extracting and shipping the iron ore mined in Nouveau-Québec. Over the following two decades, the local population soared from just 2,000 to over 20,000 inhabitants. In 1963, Wabush Mines further amplified the demographic boom by taking up residence in Pointe-Noire. Despite the sharp decline in the iron ore market in the 1980s, robust Asian demand in recent years has injected newfound vigour into this mining industry which, still today, is the largest in the region.

The last quarter of a century has seen four major projects set in motion which diversified the local economy: in 1983, the port of Sept-Îles expanded its facilities in the Pointe-Noire sector; in 1989, the Alouette aluminum smelter was built; during the 1990s, the Sainte-Marguerite 3 hydroelectric power station was developed; and, in 2003, the Alouette aluminum smelter underwent an expansion phase which bolstered the region's economic future.