Residents of New Brunswick town file legal action against chips company

FREDERICTON — 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.

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.

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.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.

Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press