The non-profit Belleville Agricultural Society (BAS) is Belleville’s oldest-surviving organization, the second oldest Ag Society in Ontario and third oldest Ag Society in Canada. While best known for organizing the annual Quinte Exhibition, they are now the beneficiary of one of the largest and most expensive projects in Belleville’s history.
Despite early promises from Mayor Panciuk that the relocation project would break even, the City has incurred substantial long-term tax-funded debt to fund its construction.
To gain control of the centrally-located Old Fairgrounds property – that ultimately turned out to be contaminated – for development, Belleville had to break the Society’s existing lease, which had 33 years remaining.
The City has allocated nearly $30M, including $13.5M of long-term (25 year) debt to provide a small local non-profit with 30 acres of land on a 50-year lease and a brand-new, $10M, 36,000 sqft. exhibition building for $2 a year in rent.
- Land, municipal servicing, and building construction: $29,750,000
- Interest on long-term debt: $9,080,235
- Total commitment: $38,830,235
The City’s hope is that the venue will spark tourism and economic development from weddings and trade shows, that the sale of 30 adjacent acres of industrial land will eventually allow taxpayers to break even.
For now, however, after the sale of the Ben Bleecker land – Belleville still needs to recoup $36.5M to break even on the project and taxpayers will be paying $903,209.42 per year until 2050, in addition to higher water/wastewater rates.
Background
Mitch Panciuk was a board member of the Belleville Agricultural Society from at least 2013 to 2015, and is an “Honourary Life Director” as per the Society’s website. He was a councillor from 2014 to 2018 and mayor of Belleville from 2018 to 2022.
In 2015, Councillor Panciuk resigned from board of Agricultural Society after assessing his relationship for a potential pecuniary interest.
In 2016, Belleville Council bought out Belleville Agricultural Society’s (BAS) 99 year lease for the Ben Bleecker land on the northeast corner of Sidney St and Bridge St W for $600,000.
In October 2019, Belleville received a letter from the Integrity Commissioner regarding Mayor Panciuk’s potential conflict of interest with the Agricultural Society, which the Mayor said he requested and cleared him of any conflict. This letter is mentioned in the meeting minutes, but was not included in the agenda so it was not made available to the public.
In 2020, Belleville and the Agricultural Society signed a Memorandum of Understanding, allowing the City to take over the lease of the Old Fairgrounds property on the northwest corner of Sidney St and Bridge St in return for a new 50 year lease on 30 acres on Black Diamond Rd and a new 37,500 sqft. exhibition building estimated at $4M. The Quinte Curling Club would remain where it is and 5 acres behind it will be set aside to relocated the YMCA from the east end to a new YMCA Center for Life.
The mayor stated multiple times that the taxpayer wouldn’t be on the hook for any costs of the relocation of BAS:
We’ll cover our costs easily by the sale of about 30 acres of commercial/industrial land next to the new Society property. There’s lots of interest in it and the agreement opens up the land for sale for commercial and residential use at Sidney and Bridge Streets as well
Mayor Mitch Panciuk
A month later, Belleville Council approved the purchase of the 75 acre triangular parcel of undeveloped land zoned for agricultural use east of Highway 37 north of Black Diamond Road in Cannifton from the family of the late Roy Boyce for $1.75M.
In 2021, Belleville sold the former Ben Bleecker property for $2.375M, with no strings attached and it has remained undeveloped.
In 2022, Belleville signed a 50-year lease agreement with Agricultural Society for a 30 acre portion on the east portion of the land for $2 per year:
The lease agreement allows the society to build some additional buildings on the property and use the balance of the property, including:
- Trade Shows – Boats, Motors, RV’s, Motor homes, Trailers, Tents, Motorcycles, Cars, Artisan, etc.
- Farm Animal Shows and Competition
- Truck/Tractor Pulls and Races
- Demolition Derby
- Horse Riding Trails
- Famers Markets
- Midway
- RV Site with Dumping Stations (subject to the necessary permits and environmental approvals being obtained by the Tenant).
- Flea Markets
- Auction Sales
- Art/Craft Shows
- Conventions/Meetings/Weddings/Live Entertainment
- Animal shows/training
- Horse Riding and Training
The Agricultural Society retains any and all revenue generated from these events and is exempt from property taxes as per The Agricultural and Horticultural Organizations Act. Belleville is responsible for any costs associated with major repairs and replacement of buildings.
The proposed new BAS exhibition building “will be the only building of its type between Toronto and Ottawa that will allow them to put on, be part of, a horse-show circuit with indoor horse jumping, cattle shows, RV equipment, car and dog shows. This will make money for them as they go forward
Mayor Panciuk
Total funding allocated: $29.75M
Belleville has allocated a total of $29.75M and spent at least $25.25M to develop the New Fairgrounds site and relocate the Belleville Agricultural Society:
- 2016 – $600,000 to buy out the 99-year lease on Ben Bleecker property
- $16,750,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – New Site Development
- 2020-1.088 – $1,750,000 to acquire the land on Black Diamond Rd
- 2021-1.064 – $1,350,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – New Site Development with tax-funded long term debt
- 2022-1.007 – $13,650,000 ($11,650,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – New Site Development + $2,000,000 (ENG-2022-04))
- $8,500,000 in tax funded long-term debt, requiring payments of an estimated $385,000 per year in property taxes
- $5,150,000 in user rate funded long-term debt, increasing water and wastewater rates
- $12.4M to Cobourg Development Services for new sewer main extension
- 2026-1.009 – $250,000 Black Diamond Road Servicing – Additional Funding – Property and Approvals from Casino from Economic Development reserve fund
- $12,990,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – Exhibition and Educational Building
- 2022-1.076 – $20,640,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – Exhibition and Educational Building
- $11,640,000 in tax funded long-term debt, requiring payments of an estimated $400k-$600k per year in property taxes
- $500,000 from Casino – Economic Development Reserve Fund
$8,500,000 application to the federal Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program(application denied)- $10.5M to Bel-Con for construction of exhibition building
- 2024-1.041 – $850,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – Exhibition and Education Building – Additional funding from tax-funded long term debt resulting in an estimated increase in annual debt payments of $57,000, representing a tax impact of 0.05%.
- On November 24, 2025, Belleville approved taking out a $13.5M, 25 year loan at a rate of 4.53% for “Capital costs in connection with the Black Diamond Road property development and servicing to relocate the Belleville Agricultural Society project”.
- 2022-1.076 – $20,640,000 Belleville Agricultural Society – Exhibition and Educational Building
- $9,080,235 in interest on $13.5M of long-term (25 year) debt
Peer review of Agricultural Society’s business plan not made available to the public
The MOU between Belleville and BAS required BAS to submit a multi-year business plan for Belleville’s approval as a measure of protection of Belleville’s investment in the project.
The report estimated that the Belleville Fairgrounds Trade & Exhibition Centre would have a net income of $100,000 in its fifth year of operations.
Belleville staff identified “a number of issues/concerns” with the Agricultural Society’s business plan that BAS submitted and recommended it be peer reviewed to ensure its accuracy.
Belleville Council supported conducting a peer review of business plan, but was never made available to the public and was not provided by the Clerk upon request. A Freedom of Information request has been submitted to obtain a copy.
