Prince Edward Island to open adoption records

The Hon. Tina Mundy, Minister of Family and Human Services for Prince Edward Island, announced during Tuesday’s question period that the province has decided to open up adoption records.

Hon. Tina Mundy, Minister of Family and Human Services, PEI.

The minister said she expects to introduce legislative changes next spring and added that anyone who has been affected by adoption will have an option to protect their identity through a veto.

An advisory committee, tasked with seeking feedback, heard from Islanders who were both for and against opening the records. The committee’s report will be tabled this week and made available on the department’s website.

Details on the legislation will be announced in the coming months, and the minister said there will be about a yearlong period of public engagement before any changes come into effect.

Prince Edward Island will become the last province in Canada to open its adoption records, leaving only two territories, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, with closed records.

In 1995, British Columbia became the first province to have open adoption records.

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One Response to Prince Edward Island to open adoption records

  1. Toni says:

    Does anyone know when adoptions were first documented? My ggrandfather was b. 1804 but no documentation of any kind has turned up so far. Family lore says his mother remarried sometime after the war of 1812. That leaves a lot of years unaccounted for. Y DNA says he is a Ward but perhaps he used the name Clarke at times or a name we haven’t discovered yet. He’s my space ship brick wall.

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