Low is a township municipality

Types of municipalities in Quebec

The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec....

 in the La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau Regional County Municipality

La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau Regional County Municipality, Quebec

La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau is a Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of western Quebec, Canada. The seat is in Gracefield. It is named for its location straddling the Gatineau River north of Low. It was incorporated on January 1, 1983.It consists of two cities, fifteen...

 of western Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada. It is situated along the Gatineau River

Gatineau River

The Gatineau River is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec...

 north of Wakefield

Wakefield, Quebec

Wakefield is a village on the western shore of the Gatineau River, at the confluence of the La Pêche River in the Outaouais region of Quebec. The village, named after the town of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, is now the southern edge of the municipality of La Pêche, and was founded in 1830...

, and it is located within Canada's National Capital Region

National Capital Region (Canada)

The National Capital Region, also referred to as Canada's Capital Region, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding urban and rural communities....

. Its 2006 population was 956.

Low received its name from Charles Adamson Low, a lumber merchant who held timber rights in the Gatineau Valley.

A section of Low called Tucker Lake was home of the Gatineau Clog, a country music festival founded by Wayne Rostad

Wayne Rostad

Wayne Victor Rostad, CM is a Canadian musician and television presenter.In 1969, he became a radio host for CJET in Smiths Falls, Ontario...

 in 1980.

The mayor of Low is Morris O'Connor elected in November 2009. Former mayor was Michael Francis who was mayor back in the mid- eighties, and was re-elected in 1997. However Michael announced his retirement in the summer of 2009, and finished his term until November 2nd.

Geography

Low is situated in a corner of mountainous terrain on the edge of the Gatineau Hills

Gatineau Hills

The Gatineau Hills are a geological formation in Canada that makes up part of the southern tip of the Canadian Shield, and acts as the northern shoulder of the Ottawa Valley...

, but conducive to agriculture. It is dotted with an abundance of lakes, most notably Sainte-Marie, Island, Doyle, cameron, and Venosta Lakes.

History

Low represents a rare case where the township was formed after the municipality; the township dates back to 1859 whereas the municipality was founded in 1848 and the municipality township was officially established on 1 January 1857, and which came into force on 1 January 1858. It was named after Charles Adamson Low, an important timber merchant of the region in the mid 19th century, a time when many Irish immigrants settled here. Its post office was established in 1854.

Demographics

Population:

• Population in 2006: 956
• Population in 2001: 852
  • 2001 to 2006 population change: 12.2 %
• Population in 1996: 807
• Population in 1991: 892

Total private dwellings (excluding seasonal cottages): 419

Languages:

• English as first language: 48.7 %
• French as first language: 49.7 %
• Other as first language: 1.6 %

Paugan Hydroelectric Station

The Paugan Station (Centrale de Paugan), built in 1928, is a run-of-river

Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity

Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation whereby a considerably smaller water storage called pondage or none is used to supply a power station. Run-of-the-river power plants are classified as with or without pondage...

 hydroelectric power station and dam on the Gatineau river, operated by Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec is a government-owned public utility established in 1944 by the Government of Quebec. Based in Montreal, the company is in charge of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across Quebec....

. It has a head

Hydraulic head

Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of water pressure above a geodetic datum. It is usually measured as a water surface elevation, expressed in units of length, at the entrance of a piezometer...

of 40.5 metres (132.9 ft), and 8 turbines with a total capacity of 202 MW. Its reservoir is 30 square kilometres (11.6 sq mi).