Rockland is a bilingual

Bilingualism in Canada

The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...

 community located about 40 kilometres (24.9 mi) east of downtown Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, part of the city of Clarence–Rockland

Clarence–Rockland

Clarence-Rockland is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell on the Ottawa River. Clarence-Rockland is located immediately to the east of Ottawa and is considered part of Canada's National Capital Region in the census....

. Rockland has a population of 9,210.

History

The Clarence region began growing in 1840 with the development of the road to l'Orignal-Bytown. Before then, farmers relentlessly cleared wooded space to be able to cultivate land, their only survival mean. In 1868, a young entrepreneur, William Cameron Edwards, decided to establish a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 at the McCaul point. The opening of link to the Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

 followed in 1888 to allow wood and merchandise to be transported. Edwards, who held timber rights in the area and was also the first postmaster, named the area for the rocky nature of its landscape.

In 1889, the mission served by the priest Caron from Clarence-Creek became a parish. The first priest of the new parish was Siméon Hudon, native of Québec City. The first school opened in 1875 while the first high-school opened in 1905.

Construction of a second railroad in 1908 linking Ottawa and Hawkesbury greatly promoted population. In effect, for .75 cents (return) people could go to Ottawa to run errands and return in the same day. The woodmill owned by W. C. Edwards closed its doors in 1926, as a result of the economic turmoil following the First World War. A large part of the population moved to the Quebec province to find employment in the woodmills in Hull and Gatineau. The economic recovery began in 1939 with the start of the Second World War. The return of soldiers after the war brought an increase in population. Construction of homes increased rapidly creating a need for expanded water services, electricity and a sewer system implemented in 1964.

Throughout the 1970s, Rockland was a small community with a population of about 3500 people. Since the turn of the millennium, it has seen rapid growth in housing development. Prior to 2000, new homes built were below 60 or 70 annually, but in the period 2000–2010, the total number of new homes built was 2185.

Commercial expansion

Rockland is a rapidly growing community, and is constantly adding new retailers and businesses to service the community.

Rockland has local outlets of major chains like A&W Restaurant, Boston Pizza

Boston Pizza

Boston Pizza is a Canadian-based restaurant chain which owns and franchises locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico.-History:...

, Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons Inc. is a Canadian fast casual restaurant known for its coffee and doughnuts. It is also Canada's largest fast food service with over 3000 stores nationwide. It was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade, after an initial venture in...

, Canadian Tire

Canadian Tire

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is one of Canada's 60 largest publicly traded companies. The firm operates an inter-related network of businesses engaged in retailing hardgoods, apparel and petroleum as well as financial and automotive services, employing more than 58,000 people across Canada...

, Subway Restaurant, Dollarama

Dollarama

Dollarama is a chain of over 690 dollar stores across Canada. The company is headquartered in Montreal and, since 2009, is Canada's largest retailer of items for 2 dollars or less. The first Dollarama store was created at the shopping centre "Les promenades du St-Laurent" in Matane...

, Food Basics

Food Basics

Food Basics is a discount Canadian supermarket chain owned by Metro Inc. and with all stores within Ontario. It was created by A&P Canada to compete with the successful No Frills warehouse-style supermarket operated by Loblaw Companies...

, Game Stop, Giant Tiger

Giant Tiger

Giant Tiger Stores Limited is Canada’s third-largest chain of discount stores . Following the 2006 acquisition of Zellers and its parent, the Hudson's Bay Company, by American entrepreneur Jerry Zucker, Giant Tiger became the largest Canadian-owned discount retailer...

, Home Hardware

Home Hardware

Home Hardware is a privately held Canadian home improvement, construction materials, and furniture retailer. Co-founded in 1964 by Walter Hachborn and headquartered in St...

, Independent Grocers, LCBO, McDonald's Restaurant, Mark's Work Wearhouse

Mark's Work Wearhouse

Mark's Work Wearhouse, sometimes branded as Mark's, is a Canadian clothing retailer. First opened in Calgary, Alberta in 1977 by Mark Blumes, a former retail executive with the Hudson's Bay Company, it has been owned since 2001 by Canadian Tire...

, 2Networkit.com Inc., Ben's Cycle, Shoppers Drug Mart

Shoppers Drug Mart

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is Canada's largest pharmacy chain with more than 1,241 stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart in nine provinces and two territories and Pharmaprix in Quebec as well as in Hawkesbury, Ontario....

, SonXPlus, Roch Drouin Auto Repair, Staples Business Depot

Staples Business Depot

Staples is a Canadian office supply retail chain, part of the United States-based office supply company Staples Inc...

, TSC

Tractor Supply Company

Tractor Supply Company is a large retail chain of stores that offers a number of products for home improvement, agriculture, lawn and garden maintenance, and livestock, equine and pet care. It is a leading U.S. retailer in its market.Founded as a mail order tractor parts business in 1938, the...

 and Wal-Mart Supercenter

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

.

In addition to the many local restraurants, Rockland has the River Rock Inn, a hotel and conference centre.
A St-Hubert

St-Hubert

St-Hubert BBQ Ltd is a privately held chain of Canadian casual dining restaurants best known for its rotisserie chicken. St-Hubert once had a presence throughout eastern Canada, but it now has few locations outside its home province of Quebec, where it remains a dominant chain. Other locations are...

 Express Restaurant, Gabriel’s Pizza and POP Shoes are to open in 2011.

Leisure

Rockland is home to a newly constructed 45000 square feet (4,180.6 m²) Recreation Centre. The centre houses the Rockland Library, the largest YMCA in the Ottawa area (with indoor swimming pool, state-of-the-art gymnasium, numerous children's/youth/family/senior programs) and theatre.

On July 8, 2009, the Canadian and Ontario governments jointly announced funding for the construction of a new sporting event and training center in Rockland. The Centre will help meet the sports and recreational needs of the City of Clarence-Rockland and Eastern Ontario by providing two NHL-size ice surfaces, two soccer fields, a baseball diamond and a running track, as well as enhance the level of recreational tourism in the region. The multi-use facility will also allow for the creation of an advanced hockey program for secondary-school level hockey players and used as a national training facility for Hockey Canada

Hockey Canada

Hockey Canada, formally known as the Canadian Hockey Association, is the national governing body of ice hockey in Canada and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Hockey Canada controls a vast majority of ice hockey in Canada, with a few exceptions...

.

The semi-private Outaouais Golf Club has courses that are considered among the highest rated in the National Capital Region. CPGA professionals are onsite to provide lessons, and practice sessions are also available to all golfers.

Education

There are a variety of schools in Rockland including Anglophone public, Francophone public, Anglophone Catholic, and Francophone Catholic.

Elementary

• Rockland Public School (RKPS)
• St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School
• École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Trinité
• École Carrefour Jeunesse

High School

• Rockland District High School (RDHS)
• École secondaire catholique L'Escale
• St.Francis Xavier Catholic High School
  St.Francis Xavier Catholic High School, Ontario
  St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School is an English Catholic high school that serves the Clarence–Rockland community in Eastern Ontario. It is located at 1235 Russell Road, southeast of the village of Hammond. The school’s mascot is the falcons.-See also:...
  
   (St. FX) located in Hammond but attended by many students from Rockland

Transportation

The community is served by Prescott-Russell Road 17, a two-lane road that by-passes the centre of the community to its north, though multiple businesses including big-box stores have been built along the roadway over the pass several years. Heading west, it becomes Ottawa Road 174 heading towards Orleans and downtown Ottawa via Highway 417. Eastward it connects to municipalities such as Wendover

Wendover

Wendover is a market town that sits at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district...

, Alfred

Alfred

Alfred may refer to:*Alfred *Alfred *Alfred the Great , king of Wessex*Alfred Aetheling , son of King Ethelred II of EnglandIn geography:*Lake Alfred, Florida*Alfred, Maine*Alfred , New York...

, Plantagenet and Hawkesbury

Hawkesbury

Hawkesbury or Hawksbury is the name of several places:*Hawkesbury, Ontario, a town in Ontario, Canada*City of Hawkesbury a local government area in New South Wales, Australia...

. Prior to the downloading of multiple roads across the province by the Mike Harris

Mike Harris

Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...

 government during the 1990's, it was known as Ontario Road 17 east of the Highway 417 and 174 split. During the past several years, there have been calls to widen Highway 174 between Trim Road and Rockland though the city of Ottawa had previously refused funding for the highway though some Ottawa councillors as well as the federal government have expressed support for the widen due to safety reasons and multiple fatal crashes.

The community is also served by a commuter bus line operated by Leduc Bus Lines which offers 10-12 trips from the village to downtown Ottawa and Gatineau during rush-hour.