Belleville City Council were unaware of the switch in the construction timeline of the new Fairgrounds site that lead to the cancellation of this year’s Quinte Exhibition.
The Belleville Agricultural Society posted to its social media on Friday that the 203rd edition of the annual Labour Day Weekend fair had been postponed this year because their new site off Black Diamond Road won’t be ready.
The old site at Bridge and Sidney streets was unavailable due to prep work for future development, severely limiting any activities there.
Speaking during council’s meeting on Monday, councillor Paul Carr said he was surprised to have learned of the news through the media that Friday, asking staff about the shift in the timeline.
CAO Matt MacDonald said that there was a meeting between city staff, the Agricultural Society, and the contractor in charge of building the new site where MacDonald says staff was informed of a timetable change on the construction schedule.
“They were working towards getting that done on time, but it was unlikely to happen in time to allow them to schedule,” MacDonald explained to council.
“So they were not confident that they could meet the timeline.”
MacDonald says that city staff were waiting for the Agricultural Society to have a meeting and be informed of their decision on the status of the fair when the news was posted to their social media and picked up by media outlets.
“We had had discussion that we wanted to be aware of the decision of the board of the Ag Society so that we could make council aware, and that did not happen, and that’s unfortunate.”
Carr said he didn’t want to lay blame on the Agricultural Society.
“I can imagine, given the time of the year it is right now, they’re in the process of deciding whether to sign contracts and things that they have to do in order to implement their fall fair,” Carr explained
“But I just wanted it known that certainly from a council perspective, we weren’t aware that the timeline had changed until we started making some inquiries after this announcement. As far as council was concerned, we thought the summer of (2026), was still within reach.”
