Fredericton courthouse to become UNB Faculty of Law following renovations

In the many decades that 427 Queen Street has been the provincial courthouse in Fredericton, N.B., many juries and verdicts were deliberated and handed down.

But as the provincial government builds a new courthouse one street over, the Queen Street building will have a new purpose – it will become the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Law.

“This is very much about bringing the law faculty closer to the community, the community closer to the law students, the faculty, the researchers that will be doing work,” said federal Infrastructure Minister Dominic LeBlanc at an announcement on Wednesday.

“This is very much, we think, an economic and social driver for this capital city.”

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Over 14 months, the two levels of government and the university worked to provide funding and support for the take-over and renovations.

The provincial government will contribute $20,722,928 to the project, with the federal government pitching in $24,870,000. UNB will also pay $16,582,072.

After it was deemed unsuitable to renovate as a courthouse, 427 Queen Street could no longer serve that purpose.

Justice Minister Ted Flemming said he was approached at the time by then-Infrastructure Minister Jill Green to figure out if it could be turned into a law school.

He joked about the back-and-forth between him and the premier on deciding to allow the renovations to go through for the university.

“I just got $65 million out of him for a justice building and part of doing that was telling him that the existing building was a piece of junk and should be condemned and now I’m supposed to go tell him it should be the new law school,” he said, laughing.

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Both the government and UNB said it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

Faculty of Law Dean Michael Marin agreed the building has its issues, but all the stakeholders came together to achieve a common goal.

“The result … is the largest public investment ever in a Canadian law school,” he said in his speech.

The space will include classrooms, a legal observatory for administrative proceedings and it will become the permanent home of the UNB Free Legal Clinic.

It will have new ventilation, new accessibility features, improved lighting, new occupancy sensors, a new atrium, and reconfigured spaces for public and academic use.

Part of the renovations include efforts to reduce the building’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“We recognize the trust that you’re putting in us and we won’t let you down,” Marin said of the investments made to do the renovations for future students.

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Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin also spoke to the building’s heritage and its importance to the fabric of Fredericton and society at large.

She said keeping it open with a new purpose was meaningful.

“I’m also thinking about the significant meaning of having this building beside the Wolastoq River, I hope it will be a constant reminder to all students, professors and lawyers and members of our community that learning is a life-long journey,” she said.

“That human rights should never be taken for granted and that we all have a role to play in protecting them, including Indigenous, environmental and linguistic rights.”