History of Saint-Augustin, Mirabel, Québec, Canada

Mirabel is an off-island suburb of Montreal, located in southern Quebec.

Mirabel was formed through the expropriation of private lands and the merger of 8 municipalities in 1971. The former municipalities were (with their individual founding dates in brackets): Saint-Augustin (1855); Saint-Benoît (1855); Saint-Hermas (1855); Saint-Janvier-de-Blainville (1855); Sainte-Scholastique (1855); Saint-Canut (1857); Sainte-Monique (1872), and Saint-Janvier-de-la-Croix (1959). Initially called Ville de Sainte-Scholastique but renamed Mirabel in 1973, the city was planned to become a vast transportation and industrial hub for Eastern Canada with Montréal-Mirabel International Airport at its centre.

The City of Mirabel, born in 1971 from the merger of fourteen municipalities and small localities, today extends over a vast area of 477 square kilometers. The City of Mirabel, located at the foot of the Laurentians, is part of the administrative region of the Laurentians and the Urban Community of Montreal.

The origin of the name Mirabel is very interesting. Indeed, legend has it that around the second half of the 1870s, the government asked residents to please choose a name to identify the place so that a post office could be established.

So a Scottish major, having two daughters named Myriam and Isabelle, chose the name of Mirabel and a few years later this name became official.