It was actually named after the first paper mill erected at the mouth of the Jacques-Cartier River, The Donnacona Paper Ltd. It was located where the Jacques-Cartier River meets the St. Lawrence River. The local paper mill played a key role in creating and quickly developing the local settlement to the point of making Donnacona the most populous urban town in Portneuf County. Economic difficulties affected the lumber and pulp and paper industry and the local factory was sold a number of times. In 2007, Bowater had a debt of $7 billion and merged with Abitibi-Consolidated. The merger was to sell off Abitibi's assets and close its mills for liquidity to settle Bowater's debt.[citation needed] It closed in January 2008. It had employed 240 people manufacturing of 230,000 tonnes per annum of commercial grade paper. The demolition was scheduled to take 12 to 14 months. For three years, the town unsuccessfully tried to find an entrepreneur to restart the industry. Demolition began in March 2011.[5]
Prior to the chartering of Donnacona as a town in 1915, the area was named Pointe-aux-Écureuils. A New FranceSeigneurie existed under the name of Les Écureuils as a surrounding rural parish municipality prior to its final merge with Donnacona in 1967.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Donnacona had a population of 7,436 living in 3,300 of its 3,410 total private dwellings, a change of 3.3% from its 2016 population of 7,200. With a land area of 20.2 km2 (7.8 sq mi), it had a population density of 368.1/km2 (953.4/sq mi) in 2021.[6]