Wetaskiwin, Alberta
Encyclopedia
Wetaskiwin icon is a small city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in the province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, 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...
. The city is located 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) south of the provincial capital of Edmonton. The city name comes from the Cree
Cree language
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...
word wītaskīwin-ispatinaw (ᐑᑕᐢᑮᐏᐣ ᐃᐢᐸᑎᓇᐤ), meaning "the hills where peace was made".
Wetaskiwin is home to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum
Reynolds-Alberta Museum
The Reynolds-Alberta Museum, in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, one of 18 provincially owned and operated historic sites and museums, honours the "spirit of the machine"...
, a very large museum dedicated to celebrating "the spirit of the machine", as well as the Wetaskiwin and District Heritage Museum
Wetaskiwin and District Heritage Museum
The Wetaskiwin and District Heritage Museum, in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada celebrates the early history of Wetaskiwin and area. The Museum serves the public by documenting and telling the stories of the courageous individuals who settled here to create the city and district...
which documents pioneer arrival and lifestyle in Wetaskiwin's early years. Located southeast of Wetaskiwin, the Alberta Central Railway Museum
Alberta Central Railway Museum
The Alberta Central Railway Museum is a railroad museum located southeast of the City of Wetaskiwin, in Central Alberta, Canada. The main building was designed as a scaled-down version of the City's 1907 Canadian Pacific Railway depot. The depot includes a waiting room, baggage room and telegraph...
acknowledges the impact that the railway had on central Alberta
Central Alberta
Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta.Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province...
. Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, based in the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, commemorates and honours those whose accomplishments in aviation contributed so much to Canada's development as a nation...
is also located a short walk away from the museum.
Geography
Wetaskiwin sits on what was formerly the coast of the large sea that covered much of Alberta millions of years ago. The northwest end of Wetaskiwin is characterized by hills with sandy soil (formerly sand dunes), while the southeast end of the city is very flat with more silty soil.The city lies at an altitude of 760 m (2,493.4 ft). Coal Lake, a reservoir developed on the Battle River is located immediately east of the city, and other nearby waterways include Pipestone Creek, Bigstone Creek, Bittern Lake and Bearhills Lake.
Wetaskiwin is located at the junction of Highway 2A, Highway 13 and the Canadian Pacific
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
railroad.
Demographics
| Census History |
|
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1901 | 550 |
| 1911 | 2,411 |
| 1921 | 2,061 |
| 1931 | 2,125 |
| 1941 | 2,318 |
| 1951 | 3,824 |
| 1961 | 5,300 |
| 1971 | 6,267 |
| 1981 | 9,026 |
| 1991 | 10,634 |
| 2001 | 11,154 |
| 2006 | 11,673 |
| 2009 | 12,285 |
The population of the City of Wetaskiwin according to its 2009 municipal census was 12,285.
In 2006, Wetaskiwin had a population of 11,673 living in 4,956 dwellings
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
, a 4.7% increase from 11,154 in 2001. The city has a land area of 16.74 km² (6.5 sq mi) and a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
of 697.5 /km2.
Almost 12% of the population identified as aboriginal at the time of the 2006 census.
Almost 90% of residents identified English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as their first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
. About 2.5% identified German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, 1.5% French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, 1.0% Cree
Cree language
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...
, 0.9% Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
, 0.5% identified Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and 0.4% each identified Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
and Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
as their first language learned.
About 75 percent of residents identified as Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
at the time of the 2001 census, while 24 percent indicated they had no religious affiliation. For specific denominations Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa....
found 20% identified as Roman Catholic, 15% identified with the United Church of Canada
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada is a Protestant Christian denomination in Canada. It is the largest Protestant church and, after the Roman Catholic Church, the second-largest Christian church in Canada...
, more than 12% identified as Lutheran, 5% identified as Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, more than 4% identified as Anglican
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...
, and almost 2% identified as Pentecostal.
Economy
Wetaskiwin has the distinction of having the highest level of car salesSales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
per capita
Per capita
Per capita is a Latin prepositional phrase: per and capita . The phrase thus means "by heads" or "for each head", i.e. per individual or per person...
in Canada, thanks in a large part to city specific advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
produced through co-operation of all of the auto dealers lining the "Auto Mile". The slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
"Cars Cost Less in Wetaskiwin" is often attributed to the city.
Politics
Historically the population of Wetaskiwin has voted Conservative in both provincial and federal politics.Media
Wetaskiwin is served by two local newspapers, the Leduc - Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer (currently branded the The Pipestone Flyer) and the Wetaskiwin Times-Advertiser.Wetaskiwin Tomorrow
In February 2009, the City of Wetaskiwin started the process of creating a Municipal Sustainability Plan. The project entitled "Wetaskiwin Tomorrow" is about getting feedback from those with an interest in Wetaskiwin on the kind of city that they would like to live and work in for the next 20+ years. Then, using that feedback, a group of citizens will create a plan to present to City Council.Once accepted, the Wetaskiwin Tomorrow plan will help guide Council when decisions have to be made about the future of the city. It will help set the city’s direction when it comes to areas like business development, social services, cultural activities, and environmental protection.
A first draft of the plan is expected by be completed by March 2010.
Wetaskiwin has also put in new plans for a new swimming pool as well as an indoor soccer facility. They are expected to be complete within the next year (2010–2011).
Notable residents
- Rod BuskasRod BuskasRod Dale Buskas is a retired professional ice hockey defenceman who spent 11 seasons in the National Hockey League...
, former professional hockey player - Val FonteyneVal FonteyneValere Ronald Fonteyne is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey left winger. He played in the NHL from 1959 to 1972 serving the Detroit Red Wings , New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, and in the WHA from 1972 to 1974 with the Alberta Oilers and later the Edmonton Oilers.He wasn't an...
, former professional hockey player - Gus MarkerGus MarkerAugustus Solberg Marker was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger who played ten seasons in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Maple Leafs and Brooklyn Americans....
, former professional hockey player - Martin SonnenbergMartin SonnenbergMartin Sonnenberg is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward.- Playing career :Sonnenberg started his professional hockey career with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL in 1995. He signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1998, and after several years in the NHL and AHL Sonnenberg signed with KalPa...
, professional hockey player - Allen YorkAllen YorkAllen York is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender. He was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 6th round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. He is currently playing with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League...
, professional hockey player