Proposals to Open Adoption Records for New Brunswick Birth Parents and Adult Adoptees

The New Brunswick government says it is taking the first steps to open records for adoptions which have been finalized in the province. 

Families and Children Minister Stephen Horsman says, under the proposed amendments to the Family Services Act and the Vital Statistics Act, records for future adoption will be made available to both birth parents and adoptees, once the adoptee has reached the age of majority, currently age 19.

For past adoptions, records will now be opened once the adoptee has reached 19, unless a birth parent or an adult adoptee has filed a disclosure veto.

The amendments will also provide for contact preference notices, where a birth parent or an adult adoptee can choose if and how they want to be contacted by the other party for both future and past adoptions.

Suzanne Kingston, executive director of the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation, says a consultation process focused on birth parents, adoptive families and adoptees. She says the Foundation's Adoption Support Network will work to link people and assist in finding information and resources.

Upon request, the Vital Statistics branch of Service New Brunswick will issue at no charge a statement of original registration of birth, including the names of birth parents,

More information on the citizen engagement regarding the opening of adoption records is available from Social Development.