Quebec's own Disney? Massive water park, complex aiming to turn Mirabel into tourist hub

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 07, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Developer Ray Junior Courtemanche would 1 time similar to beryllium considered the Walt Disney of Quebec.

"It's my dream," Courtemanche said, lasting adjacent to the bare batch successful Mirabel, Que., wherever helium volition soon interruption crushed connected an indoor h2o parkland that promises to beryllium 1 of the largest successful Canada.

The project, called Morea, which was fixed the greenish airy successful March by the suburb of Mirabel, northbound of Montreal, volition diagnostic much than 20 attractions, including slides, a lazy river, spas and a surfing question excavation — implicit 150,000 quadrate feet of amusement space.

"I privation everyone to travel present and marque large memories. This is wherefore I privation to physique this," Courtemanche said.

On apical of the h2o park, the improvement volition besides see a normal centre, 2 hotels with a full of 547 rooms, a 1,500 spot show hallway and a multi-level parking store with a capableness of 1,350 vehicles.

The parkland is being paid for done backstage investments, and Courtemanche says helium expects it to outgo betwixt $175 to $200 cardinal to build.

He says it volition besides see a state-of-the-art h2o recycling strategy that is inspired by akin systems utilized successful water-starved tourer destinations similar Las Vegas and Dubai.

Marketing manager for Investissement Ray Junior and Courtemanche's daughter, Chloé Courtemanche, says the parkland aims to redefine the tourism scenery successful Quebec by providing radical with a premium destination betwixt Montreal and Mont-Tremblant.

"We don't person immoderate competitors really due to the fact that we volition beryllium wholly antithetic [than different h2o parks] due to the fact that we person the normal centre and the 2 hotels," she said.

Small municipality 'competing successful the large leagues': Mirabel mayor

The Morea Water Park volition beryllium situated wrong a improvement called Cité Mirabel. Since 2012, Ray Junior Courtemanche has been moving with the metropolis to make the area, and they've been busy.

There are already 3,500 recently constructed condos, 1,000 detached homes, dozens of restaurants and outlet shopping.

Mirabel Mayor Partick Charbonneau says the imaginativeness for the country is based astir precocious density surviving with entree to services for residents, each wrong a abbreviated distance. He says the increasing neighbourhood is perfect for radical who enactment nearby or privation to commute to Montreal. It besides seems to beryllium attracting retirees who are looking to downsize and soon, hopefully, tourists.

Charbonneau says Mirabel utilized to beryllium considered different sleepy suburb but that successful the past 15 years, it has "become a tiny municipality that's competing successful the large leagues."

The h2o parkland is portion of the city's continued propulsion to go a tourer destination that aims to pull radical who privation to enactment successful a spot that is entertaining arsenic good arsenic sojourn some Montreal and Mont-Tremblant. Charbonneau added that the area's farm-to-table restaurants and sweetener shacks are already increasing a coagulated estimation that pull visitors.

Cité Mirabel is besides adjacent doorway to a 36-hole play people and determination has been speech of exploring the anticipation of gathering a tiny shot stadium that could big a squad successful the Frontier League similar the Aigles successful Trois-Rivières oregon the Capitales successful Quebec City.

Charbonneau didn't privation to remark connected a imaginable shot stadium astatine this point, saying lone that the metropolis is moving hard to analyse each projects that marque consciousness to circular retired the neighbourhood.

Whether the h2o parkland and rest of the development leads to Mirabel becoming Quebec's mentation of Orlando with Disney remains to beryllium seen.

Still, the h2o parkland already has a mascot to rival the likes of Mickey Mouse — a turtle named Mo.

Work is expected to commencement connected Morea successful the outpouring of 2026. The opening day is expected to beryllium successful the outpouring of 2028.