New BrunswickThe City of Fredericton’s chance of success taking over the Exhibition Grounds on the edge of the downtown depends on a variety of factors, says a lawyer who specializes in expropriation.Interested parties have until Sunday to make objections known to expropriation officerOliver Pearson · CBC News · Posted: Nov 07, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The city is moving forward with its plan to take control of the Exhibition Grounds, with hopes housing and a middle school will go in there. (Michael Heenan/CBC) The City of Fredericton is moving ahead with its plan to kick a handful of businesses and the New Brunswick Exhibition off the Exhibition Grounds.But the city’s chances of success are a “toss-up,” says Robert Pineo, a Halifax-based expropriation and litigation lawyer with more two decades of experience in the field.The city’s decision to expropriate was announced on Sept. 22 during a council meeting. The notice became official on Oct. 9, giving interested parties until Nov. 9 to object.Pineo described this as a “rare” case because the city and the exhibition group both have a public purpose on the property at the edge of downtown Fredericton, near Wilmot Park. WATCH | How would the Exhibition Grounds expropriation work?:How could the Exhibition Grounds expropriation play out?The City of Fredericton is moving forward with its plan to expropriate the Exhibition Grounds. If successful, the New Brunswick Exhibition and other businesses would be kicked off the property.Public purpose is about how the land will be used to benefit the community after expropriation. The city must provide its reasoning to validate the expropriation.Pineo said generally it’s easy to prove public purpose, and “almost always” the expropriation reason is valid. Based on city council’s September resolutions, the public purpose on the city’s side is to make the land, already owned by the city, available for housing, a middle school, commercial space and indoor and outdoor community spaces.But Pineo said the exhibition’s agricultural events and fairs and the property’s status as a community-gathering place are also valid public purposes.“It could be an interesting argument that … the status quo is a valid public purpose and the expropriation shouldn’t go forward.”Most cases Pineo sees in his practice in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia involve private landowners with no public purpose.Some rare factorsThe history of the Exhibition Grounds, and its use for exhibition purposes, goes back almost 200 years. N.B. Ex has been leasing the land from the city for $1 a year since 1948. The current lease is a 21-year term that expires in December 2031.Pineo said there are other aspects that make the Exhibition Grounds case unusual.He said expropriation is “the taking of land by an authorized authority, usually a government.”In this case, the fact the city is the landowner is unusual. But the city is filing to expropriate the leasehold interest, meaning any person that holds a lease on the land.Pineo said that in the context of expropriation, a lease is considered a right to the property.The exhibition group — the name on the expropriation notice is Fredericton Exhibition Ltd. — subleases the property to Tim Hortons, William’s Seafood, Feeds’n Needs and Fredericton Homeless Shelters, who are all listed in the notice.“It’s rare that an expropriation takes place of a property that has, you know, different commercial activities taking place on it,” Pino said.N.B. Ex declined an interview. CBC News has tried to reach the owners of Tim Hortons and William’s Seafood about the expropriation but they did not respond.Feeds’n Needs spokesperson Brian Wedge would only say, in an email, that the company received the notice of expropriation but it’s “business as usual” until discussions with the city and N.B. Ex.
How the Fredericton Exhibition Grounds expropriation will end is a toss-up, says lawyer
