Fight over industrial park expansion brings back memories of forced displacement [video]

For Lorneville resident Jill Leblanc, the proposed expansion of a Saint John industrial park brings back bad memories of her family’s forced displacement in the 1970s.

The proposal would redesignate more than 400 hectares of land for heavy industrial use, allowing for the expansion of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park. A public hearing about the proposed expansion is expected on May 12.

The plan has met with resistance from residents of Lorneville, a community located southwest of central Saint John, who say the project will destroy forests and wetlands and threaten their residential well water.

In response to opposition, Saint John city councillors voted in October to push back the approval process and create a task force for further discussions.

Leblanc, whose family has lived in Lorneville for five or six generations, said she doesn’t trust the authorities behind the process because of how development has unfolded in the past.

1970s demolition

That history includes the demolition of her family home as the province in 1971 expropriated thousands of acres of land in the area for industrial development. Part of that land is where the city plans to build the expansion.

“I came home from school one day, and my mom was sitting at the table crying,” Leblanc recalled. “And I asked her what was wrong and she said that they had to move because they were being expropriated. And they heard about that in the newspaper or on the radio.”

She said that some 40 families were displaced at the time. “It was my parents, my great-grandparents, two sets of grandparents, and cousins and friends.”

People from the “Save Lorneville” campaign also invoke the story of a landfill in the area. The dump was established in the 1980s, and leachate continues to escape from the site, according to Leblanc.

In 1994, an environmental assessment report published by the province stated that the Spruce Lake landfill was nearing capacity.

One of the areas under consideration for its replacement was at Paddy’s Hill, located near the northeastern end of Lorneville Road.

Area residents had “a prevailing negative attitude towards the project,” the report stated.

Those attitudes were understandable, the report added, “because they have seen much of the land around them expropriated for industrial development and there have been numerous environmental problems resulting from the landfill site at Spruce Lake.”

The Department of Environment eventually opted to build the landfill at its current Crane Mountain site, a victory for Lorneville residents.

“We fought it, we protested and we had meetings,” Leblanc recalled. “We won that fight.”

She also recalled a fight in the early 2000s against the planned use of so-called Orimulsion — a bitumen-based fuel widely regarded as a “dirty fuel” — at the Coleson Cove Generating Station.

That plan failed to materialize when a supply deal with Venezuela fell apart, resulting in a multimillion dollar boondoggle for NB Power.

Municipal task force

In October, Saint John’s planning advisory committee heard from nine local residents who opposed the proposed industrial park expansion. The PAC voted against the changes and requested further discussions with Lorneville residents.

City council later resolved to create a task force “consisting of City Staff and Lorneville community leaders.”

Leblanc said that a meeting involving the municipal task force was scheduled for Wednesday night. She isn’t a member of the municipal task force, but is part of the larger campaign.

People from the grassroots campaign wanted the meeting to happen in the community and be open to all residents, she said, but instead it took place in Saint John, and only 10 people were allowed to attend.

“So they wouldn’t allow the community to hear it all, it’s just sneaky,” she said. “I don’t trust them at all,” she said, adding that “everything [she’s] been through since the 60s” has made her skeptical about the process.

New report 

The City of Saint John didn’t respond to an interview request, but it published a 100-page draft report on Thursday detailing the outcome of seven meetings with the Lorneville Community Liaison Committee.

The report laid out the reasoning behind the expansion plan — saying, for example, that it will attract jobs to the area — along with concerns that Lorneville residents expressed during the consultation process.

That report acknowledged that many residents “have strong memories” of “painful issues” such as the expropriation of land for industrial purposes in the 1970s. It also notes that the city and community members have “diametrically opposed positions that remain in opposition even after seven meetings.”

The report also outlined some changes to the expansion plan. For example, sites with “select heavier industrial uses” would have a minimum 500 metre setback from residential property lines. Provincially significant wetlands would have a 60-metre buffer — that’s double the required 30-metre buffer, according to the report.

It also states that industrial development would be primarily “green or clean” with no air pollutants, and that staff are recommending policy changes to “clarify that the primary purpose of the park is for Medium Industrial and lighter uses.”

Among other changes, a “perpetual groundwater monitoring program” would also be implemented, according to the report.

Members of the Save Lorneville campaign appeared unimpressed with the updated proposals. An administrator of the Save Lorneville Facebook group, commented that it contained “no great improvement or attention to concerns of the Lorneville residents.”

Earth Day meeting

Leblanc shared her experience with the NB Media Co-op following a public meeting that took place on Tuesday, Earth Day, at Haven Music Hall in Saint John.

That event was billed as a critical look at the Spruce Lake project and pollution from Saint John’s Irving Oil Refinery. A separate public review of the refinery is currently underway, as required under the provincial Clean Air Act.

This report was updated at 6:48 p.m. on Monday, April 28, 2025, to include information from a report published by the City of Saint John. 

David Gordon Koch is a staff reporter with the NB Media Co-op, and Data Brainanta is a volunteer reporter and activist. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).