Population, 2001: 117,727
Geography
Moncton is located in southeastern New Brunswick in the Petitcodiac River valley, along the north bank of the river at a point where it bends from a west-east flow to a north-south direction. As such, the early Acadian settlers in the region named the area "Le Coude" (French for "The Elbow"). Moncton was originally at the head of navigation up the Petitcodiac River, but a causeway to Riverview was built in the 1960's causing extensive infilling by sedimentation of the river downstream. The river is now no longer navigable by large craft.
Moncton is located at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. Moncton is nicknamed the "Hub City", partly for this reason and also because it historically was the railway "hub" for the Maritime Provinces.
Economy
The educational and health care sectors are major factors in the local economy; the Moncton Hospital alone employing over two thousand people. Despite this, the underpinnings of the local economy remain based on Moncton's commercial, distribution, transportation and retailing heritage. Moncton's central location in the Maritimes is the reason for this. Within a three hour drive of Moncton live 1.4 million people. This is a much larger catchment area than any other city in Atlantic Canada. Despite the rivalry between Moncton and Halifax, the two cities have recently joined together to promote the concept of a Moncton-Halifax growth corridor, building on the strengths of the two cities and the intervening communities including Truro, Amherst and Sackville.
A number of regionally prominent corporations have their head offices in Moncton including Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Assumption Mutual Life Insurance, Medavie Blue Cross Insurance, Pizza Delight Corporation, Major Drilling International, Rogers Communications and Co-op Atlantic. There are a number of major call centres in the city including Asurion, Exxon Mobil, Royal Bank of Canada, UPS Courier, Fairmont Hotels, Rogers Communications, America Online and OAO Technologies. A burgeoning high tech sector includes companies such as Whitehill Technologies, Nanoptix and Spielo Manufacturing ULC (Spielo is a leading provider of video lottery machines and related products, software and services to the global gaming industry). Several arms of the Irving corporate empire have their head offices in Greater Moncton. These include Midland Transport, Majesta/Royale Tissues, Irving Personal Care, Master Packaging and Cavendish Farms. A number of transportation companies are located in Moncton, the largest and most important of which is Armour Transportation Group. Molson/Coors Breweries has recently begun construction of a new brewery in the Caledonia Industrial Park.
A new four lane Gunningsville Bridge has just been opened, connecting downtown Riverview directly with downtown Moncton. On the Moncton side, the bridge will connect with an extension of Vaughan Harvey Boulevard as well as to Assumption Boulevard and will serve as a catalyst for growth along the riverfront. Major planned developments include a convention centre, two new hotels (one a Marriott), a new regional courthouse, an expansion to the Blue Cross centre and new retail including an expansion of Highfield Square (the main downtown mall).
The retail sector in Moncton is increasingly becoming one of the most important aspects of the local economy. Major retail projects such as the Wheeler Park Power Center on Trinity Drive have quickly become major destinations for locals and tourists alike. Major tenants of this development include Atlantic Superstore, Costco, Winners, Homesense, Wal-Mart, Kent, Sears, Staples, Old Navy, Pier One Imports, Empire Theatres and the Home Depot.
Despite being located less than 50 km from the Bay of Fundy and less than 20 km from the Northumberland Strait, the climate is mostly continental, as opposed to maritime; this is most pronounced during the summer and winter seasons as maritime influences tend to temper the transitional seasons of spring and autumn.
Winter days are cold but usually sunny with solar radiation generating some warmth. There are several cold snaps throughout the winter with temperatures falling to the range of -15 to -25 degrees Celsius. Major snowfalls often result from nor'easter ocean storms moving up the east coast of North America from the southern United States. Large amounts of precipition can result from the counterclockwise rotation of these storms picking up moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and dumping it on southeastern New Brunswick as storms pass by to the south and east. In February 1992, a nor'easter lasted for two days and dropped 162 cm (65 inches) of snow on the Moncton area, paralyzing the city for nearly a week. Snowfalls typically average 20-30 cm and are sometimes mixed with rain or freezing rain.
Spring is delayed since the sea ice in the nearby Gulf of St. Lawrence requires time to melt, affecting the local micro climate. Snowfalls in late April and early May are not unheard of and trees are not in full leaf until the end of May.
Summers are usually hot and humid with daytime highs usually reaching the mid to high 20's Temperatures in the low to mid 30's occur 6-10 times per year. Rainfall is modest and periods of drought are not uncommon. The heaviest rainfalls tend to occur during thunderstorms.
Autumn is influenced by the retention of heat in the nearby Gulf of St. Lawrence and daytime temperatures remain warm until mid October. First snowfalls usually occur by mid November although consistent snow cover does not take place until mid December. Both October and November tend to have heavier precipitation and the Fundy coast of New Brunswick occasionally experiences the effects of hurricanes and tropical storms.
Education
Moncton is home to two universities: Université de Moncton, the largest French language university in Canada outside of Quebec,and Atlantic Baptist University, a small Christian liberal arts and science institution. In addition, the University of New Brunswick Moncton Campus offers health sciences degree courses in Nursing and Medical X-ray Technology based out of the Moncton Hospital. Mount Allison University, consistently ranked as one of the best undergraduate universities in Canada is located only 30 minutes away in the nearby town of Sackville.
There are two campuses of the New Brunswick Community College located in the region; NBCC Moncton campus is anglophone while CCNB Dieppe is francophone. These institutions specialize in training for trades and technology. There are also a number of private colleges in the city including the Moncton Flight College, one of Canada's oldest and most prestigious flight schools.
There are 34 public schools in greater Moncton which are administered by separate anglophone and francophone school boards. District One is francophone and administers nine schools. District two is anglophone and administers 25 schools.
High Schools in the greater Moncton area include
• Moncton High School, (Moncton, anglophone)
• Harrison Trimble High School, (Moncton, anglophone)
• Dr. L. Bernice MacNaughton High School, (Moncton, anglophone)
• Riverview High School, (Riverview, anglophone)
• Ecole Secondaire Mathieu-Martin, (Dieppe, francophone)
• Ecole Secondaire l'Odyssée, (Moncton, francophone)
Health Facilities
There are two major regional referral and teaching hospitals in Moncton; The Moncton Hospital, (principally anglophone, 400 beds, affiliated with Dalhousie University Medical School, tertiary services in neurosurgery, vascular surgery, orthopedics, trauma, burn unit, medical oncology, neonatal intensive care,) and the Hopital Georges-L. Dumont, (principally francophone, 350 beds, affiliated with Université de Sherbrooke Medical School, tertiary services in oncology (including radiation oncology) and nephrology). Between these two institutions, Moncton serves as the main medical referral centre for the central Maritime region.
Attractions
The Moncton area has several major attractions:
Champlain Place - The largest single story shopping mall in Atlantic Canada with over 150 stores and services, located in Dieppe. Major tenants include Sears, Wal Mart, Sobeys, Future Shop, Sport Chek, Toys R Us, Gap, Eddie Bauer and the Disney Store.
Crystal Palace - An indoor amusement park adjacent to Champlain Place that also includes a hotel, restaurant, eight cinema multiplex and a Chapters bookstore.
Tidal Bore - A phenomenon created by the extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy which actually reverses the downstream flow of the Petitcodiac River. A causeway built across the river to Riverview in the 1960s has significantly diminished the effects of the bore. Efforts are underway to have the causeway replaced by a bridge in order to restore the river flow, however there is a great amount of opposition from land owners on the "Lake" or western side of the causeway.
Magnetic Hill - An optical illusion created by local topography, is also the site of a major tourism development, including the nationally recognized Magnetic Hill Zoo and a water theme park called Magic Mountain. Magnetic Hill also features a major outdoor concert site. Pope John Paul II held a papal mass there in 1984. The Rolling Stones held a concert there on the 3rd of September, 2005 before 85,000 fans.
Moncton is well situated as a tourism destination. There are two national parks (Fundy National Park and Kouchibouguac National Park) within a one hour drive of the city. The warm water beaches of the Northumberland Straight are only 15 minutes away in nearby Shediac and the Hopewell Rocksare only a half hour's drive down the Petitcodiac river valley. The Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island is only a one hour's drive east of the city. Other nearby attractions include the Cape Jourimain National Wildlife Preserve (at the base of the Confederation Bridge), La Dune de Bouctouche (ecotourism site, longest remaining unspoiled barrier dune system on the eastern seaboard), Cape Enrage (historic lighthouse, fossils and adventure tourism) and La Pays de la Sagouine (Acadian cultural theme park).