Hull is the central district and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand civil servants. It is named after Kingston upon Hull in the United Kingdom.
Geography[]
Hull is located directly northwest of the confluence of the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers.
Navigation beyond Ottawa-Hull on the Ottawa River is still difficult as watercraft must be removed from the Ottawa River due to obstacles posed by rapids such as the Rapides des Chaudières or "Kettle Rapids".
Economy[]
Hull now depends primarily on the civil service as an economic mainstay. A number of federal and provincial government departments are located here. The policy of the federal government to distribute federal jobs on both sides of the Ottawa River led to the construction of several massive office towers to house federal civil servants in the 1970s and 80s; the largest of these are Place du Portage and Terrasses de la Chaudière, occupying part of what had been the downtown core of Hull.
Two paper mills (Scott Paper and the E. B. Eddy division of Domtar) still retain some industrial facilities on the Ottawa River in the center of Hull, Quebec.
Hull is also the home to the Casino du Lac-Leamy and to the Canadian Museum of History directly opposite Parliament Hill. Hull is also Outaouais's cultural center.