Kitchener, Ontario
The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located approximately 100 km west of Toronto, Kitchener is the seat of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 256,885 in the 2021 Census. The metropolitan area, which includes the neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 575,847 people, making it the tenth largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Canada and the fourth largest CMA in Ontario.
The city is adjacent to the smaller cities of Cambridge to the south, and Waterloo to the north. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as “Kitchener-Waterloo” (K-W), although they have separate municipal governments. Including Cambridge, the three cities are known as “the tri-cities”. The City of Kitchener covers an area of 136.86 square kilometres.
On June 10, 2012, the city of Kitchener celebrated 100 years of cityhood. Activities took place throughout 2012 in honour of this milestone.
Kitchener is located in Southwestern Ontario, in the Saint Lawrence Lowlands. This geological and climatic region has wet-climate soils and deciduous forests. Located in the Grand River Valley, the area is generally above 300m (1000′) in elevation.
Kitchener is the largest city situated within the Grand River watershed, and the largest city on the Haldimand Tract. Just to the west of the city is Baden Hill, in Wilmot Township. This glacial kame remnant formation is the highest elevation for many miles around. The other dominant glacial feature is the Waterloo Moraine, which snakes its way through the region and holds a significant quantity of artesian wells, from which the city derives most of its drinking water. The settlement’s first name, Sandhills, is an accurate description of the higher points of the moraine.