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.
Meanwhile, Macleans magazine has named the city one of the safest places to live in the province several times, as its crime rate is 30 per cent lower than the national average. There is a lot of green space and Mendonça says there are diverse housing options — everything from townhomes to luxury homes. And, she says, the city is proactive and developer-friendly.