“We did not have permission to die in Arvida, and the reason is that we did not have a cemetery before 1938” said Joseph Lévêque, priest of Sainte-Thérèse. In spite of a cemetery being planned in 1927, it is not until the 1930s that the project becomes a reality. The Progrès du Saguenay informs us that in September 1936, the leveling of the land, situated on the road that runs alongside Jonquière (Boulevard du Royaume), is almost finished and that the fence and the front gate are being prepared, both to be made of wrought iron. On 18 September 1938, Msgr. Charles Lamarche of Chicoutimi blesses the cemetery in front of a thousand people. Joseph Wilfrid Duquet, who dies three days later, is the first to be buried there.
The Protestant community of Arvida obtains permission to incorporate under the name Arvida Protestant Cemetery Association in July 1931. Subsequently, the corporation could build a cemetery to provide for the needs of the congregation. The first Protestant cemetery is located behind the First United Church, at the corner of Regnault and Volta (today Lavoisier) Streets. The fire that destroys the church in 1946, as well as the city’s expansion, leads to the cemetery being moved not far from the Catholic cemetery on Boulevard du Royaume. Among the particularities of the site are the tombstones of the aviators who died during their training in Bagotville during the Second World War. The cemetery is known today as the Cimetière Saguenay.