Decision on future of historic Ontario fairgrounds deferred until early 2027

A hotly contested recommendation that Scugog Township wrest control of the annual Port Perry Fair from the Port Perry Agricultural Society, stewards of the fair since 1910, and sell off four of the site’s 23 acres for development has been deferred after a raucous special council meeting Monday evening.

Council voted to charge the new council with the responsibility and defer any decision on the future of the fair – an institution at the fairgrounds for 140 years – until the first quarter of 2027.

Ten delegates were listed on the agenda Monday, including agricultural society president Paul Puckrin and Larry Corrigan, who has been campaigning to have some of the property sold for senior’s housing, and council also cited nearly three dozen letters on the future of the fairgrounds.

Scugog CAO Warren Mar also addressed the issue.

The Port Perry Agricultural Society had been encouraging its supporters to be at Scugog Township’s municipal building Monday evening to have their voices heard on the future of the historic fairgrounds.

The meeting was the first chance for residents to have their say on the final report of a consultant hired by the township to perform a ‘visioning exercise’ on the future of the fairgrounds, with a staff report based on those findings recommending the township take over the lease on the property from the agricultural society and sell off four acres, with an emphasis on senior’s housing.

After being told for months by Scugog Council that the exercise was not a precursor for development, the Port Perry Agricultural Society is calling that recommendation a “breach of public trust.”

“This report confirms exactly what we feared from the start,” said agricultural society president Paul Puckrin. “The township spent months insisting this was simply a community visioning exercise, while planning all along to take back the property, terminate our lease, and sell part of the fairgrounds for development. We have all been misled.”

The rhetoric surrounding the visioning exercise for the future of the Port Perry Fairgrounds had softened a bit in recent months but all that goodwill went out the window late Thursday with the release of the final report from Toronto consulting firm Darwin Pivot.

A staff report on the future of the property declared the township plans to “reimagine” use of the property to “better serve the local community and the township year-round.”

“The Port Perry Agricultural Society can continue with the fair on the site under a no-cost special event permit from 2027 and onward, with reasonable notice provided to end the existing month-to-month lease,” the report read.

The majority of the property – 19 of the 23 acres – will be set aside as a new Township Park with open space/event grounds areas, community use areas, and recreational space/facilities, while the remaining four acres adjacent to the intersection of Old Simcoe Road and Reach Street will be sold “preferably for seniors residential/mixed-use development” to fund improvements to the remainder of the property, the report stated.

A special reserve fund will be created to hold any sale proceeds, grant funding, or donations related to the property, with the revenue only to be used for improvements to the fairgrounds.

The agricultural society will no longer be in charge of managing the property under the new arrangement, with Scugog Township taking over long-term stewardship and possession of the property to “action and manage” an implementation plan that will be brought to council next year.

The annual Port Perry Fair will be held as scheduled on the Labour Day weekend.