About Moncton

The Moncton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is one of the top ten fastest growing metropolitan areas in Canada and is also the fastest growing urban region east of Toronto. The CMA includes the neighbouring city of Dieppe and the town of Riverview, as well as adjacent areas of Westmorland and Albert counties. The city is situated in southeastern New Brunswick, in the Petitcodiac River valley at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The community has the nickname "Hub City" because of its central location and also because Moncton has historically been the railway and land transportation hub for the Maritime Provinces. Moncton was founded in 1766 and was initially an agricultural settlement and was first incorporated in 1855. Moncton was named after Lt. Col. Robert Monckton. By the mid-1800s, a wooden shipbuilding industry flourished until the shipbuilding economy collapsed in the 1860s. The city lost its charter in 1862 before regaining it in 1875 when the city's economy rebounded, in no small part because of a growing railway industry. In 1871 the Intercolonial Railway of Canada chose Moncton to be their headquarters. Moncton remained a railroad town for well over a century until the closure of the CNR locomotive shops in the 1980s.