The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has announced a new statistics search platform to help residents quickly and easily find historical records on their own. The Finance and Treasury Board’s Office of the Chief Information Officer is responsible for the archives. Finance and Treasury Board Minister René Legacy says the platform launch is a step to modernizing public services through digital solutions to improve how people access government records. “New Brunswickers expect government services to be accessible, efficient and easy to use,” he says in a provincial news release on Wednesday. Recent changes to the Citizenship Act have resulted in a surge in requests for historical records from people outside of Canada seeking documentation to support citizenship applications. The province says the platform will help respond to this increased demand. The platform will soon allow for online payments, too. “More than one million historical vital statistics records are now available online, including birth records more than 95 years old and marriage and death records more than 50 years old,” reads the release. The province says access to historical photographs has expanded from about 2,200 to more than 150,000 in less than a year. “The archives continues to preserve New Brunswick’s documentary heritage while improving public access to historical records,” says provincial archivist Joanna Aiton Kerr. “The new platform builds on decades of innovation by providing enhanced digital tools that make it easier for New Brunswickers, researchers and families to find and access the records they need.” For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
