When Catharina Mendonça drove from Calgary to Beaumont to see her company’s new development, she thought she’d driven to another world — or at least another continent.
“I’ve travelled to Europe, and I wasn’t expecting a town like that in Alberta,” says the marketing manager of Dream Developments about its new Beaumont subdivision, Élan. “It does really embody this rich spirit, and authentic-small-town-values kind of place, where people can still walk their kids to school, and afterwards grab a coffee, and get a pastry from Chartier, their local little [French] cafe there,” she says.
She’s not the only one to notice Beaumont’s charm.
The population was estimated at 24,556 in 2024, a 5.85 per cent increase from 2023 and a 23 per cent increase from 2019.
And the numbers just keep rising. According to the 2021 Federal Census, it’s the fastest-growing municipality in the Edmonton Metro Region, and the third fastest in the province.
Beaumont is just a 24 km drive from central Edmonton and 19 km from Leduc. Approximately 80 per cent of its residents commute to these nearby neighbourhoods. “So I think one of the big allures of Beaumont is that it marries that sort of small town living with affordability. You get the best of both worlds — you get that idyllic, small-town living with unparalleled access to the city,” says Mendonça.
Not only does it exude a French vibe with red brick walkways, unique architecture, and a church from the late 1800s, it’s one of four municipalities in Alberta that’s officially bilingual. Many schools offer French immersion or Francophone curricula, and that’s obviously a draw for many French-speaking Albertans.