Our Territory

The Érable region...a sweet treat of a place!

Located in the Centre-du-Québec, the Municipalité régionale de comté (MRC) de l'Érable enjoys an undeniable geographic advantage. The region is less than 200 km from Montréal, 100 km from Québec, 150 km from Sherbrooke and 30 km from the south shore of the fleuve Saint-Laurent.

The MRC de l'Érable has a population of 25,024 inhabitants (in 1999) distributed throughout eleven municipalities. The urban network represents 2% of the territory, with most commercial and service activity centred in the towns of Plessisville and Princeville. The major industries are metal, machinery, wood, furniture, food, agriculture and clothing.

Because of the region's convenient proximity to large urban centres, nearby highways are heavily travelled. The northernmost part of the MRC de l'Érable borders the autoroute Jean-Lesage (20). Traffic on routes 165 and 116 is heavy since these roads link the Beauce region with the city of Montréal. The port de Bécancour and Trois-Rivières can be reached after less than an hour's drive, and the Victoriaville airport is a scarce 20 minutes from the area's main centres. What's more, merchants in the MRC de l'Érable have access to a market of over 80 million Québécois, Canadian and American consumers living within a 1,000-km radius.

About 30% of the territory is used for farming, compared with 65% for forestry and the maple-sugar industry. Mountains cover 35% of the MRC de l'Érable, which enjoys varied and extensive resources. The region includes some 200 manufacturers as well as 840 commercial and service enterprises. It boasts 8,900 jobs, 6,110 of which are in the manufacturing sector. In the agricultural sector, 750 farms generate an additional 2,100 jobs. Partnership between schools and industry favours full employment as well as the development of the regional workforce.

The territory served by the CLD de l'Érable covers the region's 11 municipalities. These include Inverness, Laurierville, Lyster, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Paroisse de Plessisville, Ville de Plessisville, Princeville, Sainte-Sophie-d'Halifax, Saint-Ferdinand, Saint-Pierre-Baptiste and Villeroy.