Due to an ongoing dispute with the City of Peterborough, the Peterborough Agricultural Society will not be holding the Peterborough Exhibition at Morrow Park this year.
The annual four-day agricultural exhibition has been running annually from 1845 until 2019. It was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, hosting virtual events instead.
“At the start of 2022 the board was looking forward to once again returning to Morrow Park to host a series of in-person agricultural events,” the society states in a media release issued on Thursday (June 9). “However, after repeated attempts at working with the city we have been unable to book facilities to hold the events that we had planned.”
The society says it is shifting events to other locations including Kawartha Downs and Bethany.
The City of Peterborough has approved the construction of a $62-million sports complex in the west portion of Morrow Park, fronting Park Street south of Lansdowne Street West. With construction set to begin by the fall of 2022, the first phase of the project for the twin-pad arena and library branch will include 423 parking spaces. The second phase of the project, which includes an aquatics complex, would result in an additional 149 parking spaces when completed.
According to the society, it has been “attempting to work” with the city over the past 18 months, including holding multiple meetings with staff and members of council.
“While we have supported the future development of the park, we have repeatedly expressed concerns that the proposal does not fulfill the agreement that was signed in 2017,” the society states. “The site plan for the park ignores the requirement for facilities that were initially negotiated, including an area for a sand ring and an agricultural memorial.”
“It has become apparent that the City of Peterborough has no intentions to live up to the agreement. We have repeatedly asked the city for a commitment, timeline, and budget to address the items that are listed in the 2017 agreement and they have failed to do so in the four years of the seven-year agreement.”
The society also states that it has encountered challenges, barriers, and a “reluctance” from the city to permit the use of existing facilities so that the society can continue to hold agricultural and food-related educational events.
“This has been discouraging and demoralizing for the group of volunteers who are passionate about the promotion of agriculture and food education.”
“We have a great group of youth and senior agriculture leaders who are eager to organize events but we have been faced with silence from the city in response to our attempts to schedule events at Morrow Park,” says society president Viren D’Souza. “Despite our best efforts and the agreement we have with the city that provides for our use of Morrow Park, the Peterborough Ex is dying a slow death at the hands of the city due to their unwillingness to respond to our scheduling requests.”
The Morrow family gifted the 27-acre property to the City of Peterborough in 1938 on the condition that it be available for the use of the Peterborough Agricultural Society, which was reaffirmed in the Peterborough Act of 1984.
The act states “that the (Peterborough Agricultural) Society, the Corporation (of the City of Peterborough), and the trustees of the R. A. Morrow Memorial Park Trust believe that it would be in the best interest of the Society and the Corporation that the property be conveyed to the Corporation to be used for park and recreational purposes and to be used by the Society as an exhibition grounds for an annual exhibition and for other purposes … in perpetuity”, adding that if the terms and conditions are not met, the property reverts to the Morrow family.
“The Peterborough Agricultural Society has engaged with the city in a positive and constructive manner with respect to the development of Morrow Park and the agreement between the two parties,” the society states. “The repeated requests at every stage have been ignored leading our board to believe that the city has never had intentions to fulfill the agreement and has been bargaining in bad faith. As such, the Ag Society will be looking at other options to ensure that the agreement is upheld so we can continue to deliver on the mandate that we have been delivering on for more than 175 years.”
This story has been updated with corrections to the number of parking spaces for the Morrow Park development project.
