The nation of Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867 with Québec as one of the four original provinces, along with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Québec is descended from New France, the French empire in North America, which fell to Britain during the Seven Years War (1756-63). Today Québec is the largest of Canada's ten provinces by area and second-largest by population. It retains its French heritage and has French as its official language. The heart of the province is the valley of the St. Lawrence River and Estuary. The St. Lawrence is one of the world's greatest inland waterways: ocean-going ships sail the river to Montréal and many continue on the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes. Québec is divided into 17 administrative regions (régions administratives). Outside of the major urban areas Québec is further divided into 86 county-level regional county municipalities (municipalités régionale de comté). This page covers lighthouses of southwestern Québec in the larger part of the region of Montérégie, located south of the St. Lawrence River opposite the metropolitan Montréal area. The Montérégie Region also includes the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Municipality west of Montréal and north of the river. Lighthouses of that area are described on the Western Québec page. The French word for a lighthouse is phare, although a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light") or a balise (beacon). In French île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. Aids to navigation in Canada are maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG-GCC), an agency of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO-MPO). In 2008 Parliament passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to designate and protect historic lighthouses. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. CCG numbers are from the Inland Waters (I) and Atlantic Coast (A) portions of the List of Lights, Buoys, and Fog Signals of Fisheries and Oceans Canada; the Inland Waters list includes lights in and west of Montréal. Admiralty numbers are from Volume H of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110.
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![]() Saint-Anicet Downstream Range Rear Light, Pointe Beaudette photo copyright Michael Boucher; used by permission |
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![]() Longue Pointe Traverse Upstream Range Rear Light, Longueuil photo copyright Michael Boucher; used by permission |
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![]() Île Sainte-Thérèse Upper Range Rear Light, Varennes photo copyright Michael Boucher; used by permission |
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![]() Verchères Village Range Front Light, Verchères, June 2008 Flickr Creative Commons photo by C.W. Bash |
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![]() Route de Contrecoeur Range Front Light, October 2014 photo copyright Michael Boucher; used by permission |
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![]() Ash Island Range Front Light, March 2014 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Sylvain Rancourt; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
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![]() Verchères Village Range Rear Light, Verchères, May 2004 Flickr Creative Commons photo by Larry Myhre |
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Western Québec | East: Southern Québec | South: Vermont | Northwest: Southeastern Ontario
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted September 12, 2003. Checked and revised February 8, 2024. Lighthouses: 45. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.