Residents of a New Brunswick town are planning to take legal action against a popular potato chip-making company they say has ruined their neighbourhood with noise, smells and traffic.
The group of 17 residents allege in a statement released Wednesday by their lawyer, Basile Chiasson, that the factory opened last September has caused “significant and ongoing disruption” to their quality of life and homes.
The allegations come less than a year after Covered Bridge Potato Chips Ltd. opened its new facility in Woodstock, N.B., following a fire that destroyed its original plant in nearby Waterville.
Chiasson said each resident submitted an application to proceed with their case with the Farm Practices Review Board, which provides oversight on farm practices and must be notified before someone can proceed with legal action targeting a company in this sector.
Robert Harrison, one of the residents, said in a statement that their goal was to prevent what he described as “excessive industrial intrusion” in long-established neighbourhoods.
“The Covered Bridge Potato Chip Ltd. plant is simply in the wrong place,” said Harrison.
Chiasson said the residents initially believed the company’s new Woodstock location would be temporary. It has since grown into a permanent fixture in the Woodstock Industrial Park, an area located beside a residential neighbourhood.
He added that the review board would determine if it has jurisdiction over the case or if the case needs to go before the Court of King’s Bench.
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Covered Bridge Potato Chips Ltd. did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Woodstock-area MLA Bill Hogan said he met with locals last year and was hopeful the homeowners, chip company and town would figure out a solution.
“It’s unfortunate that they weren’t able to work out a compromise so that they didn’t have to take this route,” he told The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
The Progressive Conservative MLA noted he doesn’t anticipate Covered Bridges will end up moving away from Woodstock regardless of the outcome.
“There’s quite an investment there, so I don’t see that as being realistic,” he said, adding there will be “hard feelings” either way.
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Over the past several months, residents launched an advocacy group called “Our Town, Our Voice” and brought many of their concerns to Woodstock’s town council in search of a solution.
For example, they argued the chip factory’s operation was too large for an area of the town designated for light manufacturing. But during a council meeting last November, the town’s chief administrator Allan Walker said the company fit the International Energy Agency’s definition of light manufacturing.
Residents also criticized Covered Bridge for removing trees within a five-metre buffer zone around the facility, according to an executive summary produced by Walker last year. Woodstock requires commercial lots next to residential areas to have a buffer of trees, hedges or a fence.
Walker, in a memo to council dated April 28, said Covered Bridge is “arranging fencing and landscaping” for the buffer zone by its property.
Four people who live near the chip facility complained of noise and odour, the town’s executive staffer wrote. Those concerns were referred to New Brunswick’s environment department.
A review of the noise emissions was nearing completion, according to Walker’s memo. He wrote that planned improvements are expected to “significantly reduce” noise caused by the factory.
Attempts on Wednesday to reach some of the residents mentioned in the statement provided by their lawyer were unsuccessful.
The town in 2025 granted Covered Bridge a building permit expansion and its council amended a zoning bylaw last August to allow for food processing on the company’s property.
The chip-maker employs about 50 people at its Woodstock facility and pays about $15,500 in combined municipal and provincial property taxes, according to an October 2025 city memo.
The Town of Woodstock said Wednesday it “cannot make a comment on any matter currently before the court.”
A small town in rural New Brunswick that is run by old money and doesn’t want to see change or progress. Plenty of those throughout the Maritimes. Pretty little towns that are nice to drive through, but you’d better count the steeples before you decide on staying for too long. This is God’s country, and they don’t need outside influences coming in there are changing things when they’re fine just the way they are and have always been. It’s the kind of place where you’re identified by who your parents & grandparents are/were. There’s a connection, and a sense of community that doesn’t exist in the cities.
The town has always had a loud voice in regard to who and what they let build there. They want the jobs, they want the taxes, but they don’t seem to want everything that comes along with it. Retail and service industry jobs employe a lot of people in Woodstock. They employ people from the surrounding communites as well. Progress and change need to come on their terms, as it’s their home. It’s a small town entitlement that seems to have always been there and is the culprit for the lack of infrasturcture in those rural regions for decades.
It’s easy to sit back and judge us.Some of what you say might actually be true, but it’s the way of life here. Anyone coming here should know this. The folks at Covered Bride are from around here. They should have expected it. It would be nice if the folks here in Woodstock had as much pride in the brand as they did in Hartland before their facility caught fire. It’s a small Maritime company witha growing national presence. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Either way, it’s in the hands of the courts now. The cheque for bitterness is definitely in the mail. We’ll just have to wait an see who cashes it.
Samuel … Imagine if the Neighbour’s had told The McCains that they were too Noisy and Smelly !!!
Then there is the Municipal Revenue Generated by Taxes … the Town isn’t going to tell them to Fire the Friers !!!
Quite sad really …
Meanwhile Sussex is reeling in the wake of AGROPUR shutting down … taking away 60 jobs …
Chips will Fall …
When people build or buy a home, very few anticipate it being disrupted by industrial noise and chemical odours, or turned into an unsightly part of town lined with industrial equipment. Over the last fifteen years I have watched this happen many times in New Brunswick, and any homeowner that speaks up is called names like “nimby”, or told they have to just live with it. It’s not unlike 5-storey apartment buildings going up directly across the street from single family homes. This type of intrusion should not be allowed. The people that say it is fine are those who do not live there and don’t have to deal with its real impact on quality of life and property value.
Typical Maritimes behaviour. No wonder nothing gets built in this go no where do nothing part of the country. “Yeah they gave us legal notice and followed all the steps but I’m old and I want to complain.” Bunch of losers.