Sign welcoming visitors to the town of Duncan, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Duncan (pop. 5,047 in 2021) is a city on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is the smallest city by area (2.07 square kilometres, 0.8 square miles) in Canada.[1] It was incorporated in 1912.
The city is about 45 kilometres from both Victoria to the south and Nanaimo to the north.
Although the City of Duncan has a population of just over 5,000, it serves the Cowichan Valley which has a population of approximately 90,000,[2] many of whom live in North Cowichan and Cowichan Tribes. This gives Duncan a much larger perceived "greater" population than that contained within the city limits. People in areas of North Cowichan and bordering on Duncan usually use "Duncan" as their mailing address.
The city is served by the Trans-Canada Highway which connects the city to Nanaimo in the north and Victoria to the south. Highway 1 through Duncan is a four-lane street with two signalized intersections (within the city limits) and a speed limit of 50km/h.[citation needed] Duncan has a base maximum speed limit of 30 km/h.
Duncan is connected to the two largest communities on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo and Victoria, through regular bus service.
Public transit provides connections from Duncan to the surrounding communities including Lake Cowichan, Crofton, Chemainus, and Ladysmith as well as communities to the south including Cobble Hill, Shawnigan Lake and Mill Bay. Mill Bay service includes routing to the Malahat first nation and the Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay Ferry across the Saanich Inlet.
The Nanaimo Regional Transit System provides daily (except Sunday) bus service between Duncan and Nanaimo including a stop at the Nanaimo Airport.
The Island Rail Corridor railway line still passes through Duncan along the coast of Vancouver Island, but trains have long since stopped running on it. Both freight service and the Crown corporation VIA Rail passenger service have been suspended due to deferred maintenance on the rail line.
Duncan is serviced by the neighbouring Maple Bay Airport (YAQ) in North Cowichan, which offers services to Vancouver Downtown, Vancouver Airport, Ganges on Salt Spring Island and Bedwell Harbour on Pender Island. Service is provided by Saltspring Air and Harbour Air.
History
The community is named after William Chalmers Duncan[3][1] (born 1836 in Sarnia, Ontario). He arrived in Victoria in May 1862, then in August of that year he was one of the party of a 78 settlers which Governor Douglas took to Cowichan Bay.[4] After going off on several gold rushes, Duncan settled close to the present City of Duncan. He married in 1876, and his son Kenneth became the first Mayor of Duncan. There is a Kenneth Street, as well as a Duncan Street, in the City.[5]:69
Duncan's farm was named Alderlea, and this was the first name of the adjacent settlement. In August 1886, the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway was opened. No stop had been scheduled at Alderlea for the inaugural train bearing Sir John A. Macdonald and Robert Dunsmuir. However, at Duncan's Crossing, the level crossing nearest Alderlea, a crowd of 2,000 had assembled around a decorated arch and the train came to an unplanned halt.[5]:69 According to this legend, a train station was established at the settlement and the city built around it.[6] Initially part of the District of North Cowichan, Duncan felt its needs as an urban settlement in the largely rural municipality were not being met, in particular the need to have proper roadways.[7] After a particularly wet winter in 1911–1912, a vote was held to make Duncan a distinct city, and it was incorporated on March 4, 1912.[8] With the enlargement of North Cowichan in the ensuing decades, there was an effort to re-unite the two municipalities, though a referndum on the matter in June 1978 was soundly defeated.[9]
In the early 1900s, Duncan's Chinatown was the social centre for the Cowichan Valley's Chinese population. Chinatown was concentrated in a single block in the southwestern corner of Duncan. At its largest point, Duncan's Chinatown included six Chinese families and 30 merchants who supplied goods and services to the loggers, millworkers, cannery and mine workers in the area.[10] The city tore the buildings down in 1969 to build a new law courts complex. Some materials from the original buildings were used at Whippletree Junction.[11]
In the 1980s, the city was noted in coverage related to the 1985 bombings at Narita Airport in Japan and aboard Air India Flight 182, Canada's largest murder case. Resident Inderjit Singh Reyat purchased bomb parts and a radio at Duncan stores, and used the radio to conceal the bomb. Less than two weeks prior to the bombings, Reyat and suspected Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar were observed testing explosives in the woods outside of Duncan by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).[12]
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Duncan had a population of 5,047 living in 2,454 of its 2,620 total private dwellings, a change of 2.1% from its 2016 population of 4,944. With a land area of 2.06km2 (0.80sqmi), it had a population density of 2,450.0/km2 (6,345.5/sqmi) in 2021.[13]
Ethnicity
Panethnic groups in the City of Duncan (1986−2021)
The City of Duncan was incorporated in 1912 and is known for one of the largest totem pole collections. The City was officially named "City of Totems" in 1985. The City had 44 totem poles in the collection, however one was destroyed in an auto accident, one was gifted to Kaikohe, New Zealand and one returned to earth. In 2007, the City of Duncan deemed copyright privileges of the totem poles. The use of the totems' images for commercial purposes requires the City of Duncan's approval.[25] The Cowichan Historical Society (Museum) provides free totem tours in the summer months.
Duncan has a large Indigenous community and is the traditional home of the Cowichan Tribes, who are the largest band among the Coast Salish people. The Coast Salish men and women of the Cowichan Tribes are makers of the world-famous Cowichan Sweaters.
Cowichan Community Centre is located in the jurisdiction of the Municipality of North Cowichan, and serves purpose for all citizens in the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), including swimming and skating facilities.
Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina University-College) has a regional campus in the Municipality of North Cowichan, bordering Duncan, that offers a Bachelor of Education degree as well as programs and courses in university transfer, access, trades and applied technology, health and human services, and career and academic preparation. The campus also has a Continuing Education department that offers certificate programs, personal and professional development courses, and online courses. The current 55,000-square-foot (5,100m2) campus opened for classes in June 2011.
Also bordering Duncan in the Municipality of North Cowichan, there are two public secondary schools, Cowichan Secondary School, and Quamichan Secondary School, as well as several elementary schools. The head offices of School District 79 Cowichan Valley are also located in North Cowichan. In the Cowichan region there are also has two denominational independent schools: Queen of Angels (Catholic school), serving preschool to Grade 9 students, and Duncan Christian School, whose campus is home to both an independent elementary and high school. Sunrise Waldorf School is a non-denominational K-8 independent school offering Waldorf education in the Cowichan Valley.
↑ Statistic includes all persons that did not make up part of a visible minority or an indigenous identity.
↑ Statistic includes total responses of "Filipino" and "Southeast Asian" under visible minority section on census.
↑ Statistic includes total responses of "Chinese", "Korean", and "Japanese" under visible minority section on census.
↑ Statistic includes total responses of "West Asian" and "Arab" under visible minority section on census.
↑ Statistic includes total responses of "Visible minority, n.i.e." and "Multiple visible minorities" under visible minority section on census.
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References
1 2 "Duncan". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
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Highway 1 (TCH) 
