In 1867, the main condition for New Brunswick and Nova-Scotia entering into the Canadian Confederation was, to be linked to the rest of the country by the railway. In 1868, work began on the Intercolonial Railway and the authorities decided to have the railway turn at Saint-Octave-de-Métis in Gaspésie. However, this village, because of its rugged landscape, was not suitable to receive the train station and maintenance shops. The engineers turned to the higher 2nd farming rank of Sainte-Flavie, and the train station was named Sainte-Flavie-Station. In 1880, Sainte-Flavie-Station became separate and was named Mont-Joli, the name which the first settlers had used to describe the area.
Mont-Joli has a humid continental climate (KöppenDfb). The average annual temperature in Mont-Joli is 3.9 °C (39.0 °F). The average annual precipitation is 931.7 mm (36.68 in) with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 17.9 °C (64.2 °F), and lowest in January, at around −11.3 °C (11.7 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Mont-Joli was 35.9 °C (96.6 °F) on 4 July 1983; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −34.7 °C (−30.5 °F) on 3 January 2014.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mont-Joli had a population of 6,384 living in 3,034 of its 3,173 total private dwellings, an increase of 1.6% from its 2016 population of 6,281. With a land area of 24.24 km2 (9.36 sq mi), it had a population density of 263.4/km2 (682.1/sq mi) in 2021.[7]
Canada Census Mother Tongue - Mont-Joli, Quebec[6]
Census
Total
French
English
French & English
Other
Year
Responses
Count
Trend
Pop %
Count
Trend
Pop %
Count
Trend
Pop %
Count
Trend
Pop %
2021
6,095
6,005
0.3%
98.5%
40
33.3%
0.7%
20
0.0%
0.3%
20
33.3%
0.3%
2016
6,085
6,025
4.2%
99.0%
30
25.0%
0.5%
20
33.3%
0.3%
15
25.0%
0.2%
2011
6,385
6,290
2.2%
98.5%
40
11.1%
0.6%
30
0.0%
0.5%
20
50.0%
0.3%
2006
6,265
6,155
12.5%
98.2%
45
80.0%
0.7%
30
n/a%
0.5%
40
n/a%
0.6%
2001
5,510
5,470
n/a
99.3%
25
n/a
0.5%
0
n/a
0.0%
0
n/a
0.0%
Infrastructure
Via Rail station
Mont-Joli is the easternmost end of Autoroute 20, whose segment connects with the city of Rimouski. Route 132 runs through the centre of Mont-Joli as part of a loop that circumnavigates the Gaspé Peninsula; it is about 3 km (2 mi) southeast of Sainte-Flavie, where Route 132 intersects with itself.
