Bienvenue à Montréal

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

About 14.4 million people visit Montréal each year, but only about 3.5 million live in the city year-round. Given all that Montréal has to offer, it’s entirely possible that each resident has a unique reason why they’re happy to call Montréal home.

Founded in 1642 by French settlers, Montréal’s urban landscape is very unique. The cobblestone streets and Victorian buildings of Old Montréal make residents and visitors alike feel as though they’ve stepped back in time to old-world Europe, while towering skyscrapers serve as reminders that Montréal is a thoroughly modern, North American city.

French is the official language of Quebec, which may be daunting for anyone contemplating a move to Montréal. Montréal boasts it’s status as the world’s second-largest French-speaking city, and offers French courses to immigrants of all ages and education levels. Many more languages than French and English are spoken here, as the city is home to over 80 ethnic communities.

For persons of faith, Montréal offers many places to worship, most notable amongst them being the Notre-Dame Basilica. There are so many churches here, in fact, that Montréal has been dubbed the “city of a hundred steeples.” Mark Twain, upon his first visit to Montréal, is reported to have said, “This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window.”

Perhaps it is this city’s multiculturalism that has made Montréal a hotbed of activity where the arts are concerned. After all, Montréal is home to over 30 museums, hundreds of galleries, a behemoth of festivals and a lively cinematic scene with over 200 theatre companies that stage everything from Shakespeare to fringe.

As a prospective resident of Montréal, you’ll be pleased to learn that this city is considered one of the safest in the world. Montréal’s metro system is one of the most safe and efficient transit systems in existence.

The city also has an excellent reputation as a centre of higher learning. There are nearly 160,000 full-time university students in the city, or 4.4 students per 100 residents; the highest ratio in North America – probably owing to the fact that Quebec students pay the lowest tuition in Canada. There are four major institutions: McGill and Concordia universities with instruction in English, and the Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) with instruction in French.

In terms of job growth, Employment Quebec anticipates that 251,000 new jobs will be created within the province by 2009. The Montréal region ranks fourth among major metropolitan areas in North America in terms of concentration of high-tech jobs. Demand for highly skilled labourers in the aerospace, biotechnology and information technology sectors remains fairly constant.

For more information on this unique and dynamic city, visit the City of Montréal’s official website at www.ville.montréal.qc.ca and Tourisme Montréal at www.tourisme-montréal.org. MTM

Moving To Quebec

Bienvenue à Montréal