Montreal East (in French: Montréal-Est) is an on-island suburb in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the island of Montreal. Montreal-Est has been home to many large oil refineries since 1915. History The formation of Montréal-Est as a municipality was initiated in 1910 by businessman Joseph Versailles, who had bought of land there. The town was incorporated on 4 June 1910 under the name Montreal East, when it separated from Pointe-aux-Trembles and Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rivière-des-Prairies. Versailles was mayor of the town until his death in 1931. On January 1, 2002, as part of the 2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, it was merged into the City of Montreal and became part of the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles–Montréal-Est. After a change of government and a 2004 referendum, it was the only community in the eastern half of the Island of Montreal that de-merged, and it was re-constituted as a city on January 1, 2006. Major streets Montréal-Est is served by Notre-Dame Street and Sherbrooke Street, which run east-west through large portions of the Island of Montreal. Montréal-Est joined Westmount as the only Montreal island municipalities to refuse to adopt the name of Boulevard René-Lévesque for their portion of the major east-west street, Dorchester. To this day, the street is called Rue Dorchester in Montréal-Est. It also preserves a section of Rue de Montigny, which has otherwise been replaced by Boulevard de Maisonneuve apart from one block downtown. Rue Sainte-Catherine and Rue Ontario also reappear in Montréal-Est, far away from their main downtown sections. North-south streets in the city include Avenue Georges-V and Avenue Marien. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Montréal-Est had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Economy There are three refineries that make up the majority of the Montreal Oil Refining Centre: Shell Canada Montreal East Refinery : formerly produced 161,000 barrels per day (bpd) before conversion to a storage facility Petro Canada Montreal Refinery : 160,000 bpd Gulf Canada/Kemtec/Coastal Canada Montreal East Refinery : 65,000 bpd Total production: 386,000 bpd Local government List of former mayors: Joseph Versailles (1910–1931) Adélard Rivet (1931) Albert Berthiaume (1931–1933) J.-A. Napoléon Courtemanche (1933–1952) Joseph-Émile-Roland MacDuff (1952–1962) Édouard Rivet (1962–1982) Yvon Labrosse (1982–2002, 2006–2009) Robert Coutu (2009–2021) Anne St-Laurent (2021–present) Attractions The Dufresne-Nincheri Museum, a historic building