List of parishes in New Brunswick

The Canadian province of New Brunswick is divided by the Territorial Division Act ^[1] into 152 geographic parishes, ^{[lower-alpha 1]} units which had political significance as subdivisions of counties until the Municipalities Act of 1966. ^{[lower-alpha 2]} Parishes still exist in law and include any municipality, rural community, or regional municipality within their borders. ^[2] They provided convenient boundaries for electoral districts ^{[lower-alpha 3]} and organising delivery of government services for some time after 1966 but were gradually supplanted for such purposes by local service districts (LSDs), which better represent communities of interest. Local governance reforms on 1 January 2023 abolished the local service district as a unit of governance but this did not affect the existence of geographic parishes.

Parishes are still used ^{[lower-alpha 4]} to describe legal boundaries for health administration ^{[6] [7]} judicial matters, ^[8] agricultural boards, and some other entities; highway, fisheries and wildlife, community planning, and some other departments use parishes for rural locations, while some forms still use parishes as the only alternative to municipalities when entering one's community.

Provincial government guidelines require capitalising the word parish only if it follows the specific part of the name: e.g., Hopewell Parish but the parish of Hopewell. ^[9]

Other uses of the term parish

Confusion is caused by three other government uses of the term parish.

• The provincial government used LSDs to deliver services to unincorporated parts of the province. 128 LSDs ^{[lower-alpha 5]} had a name identical to the parish they were at least partly in, but only 26 ^{[lower-alpha 6]} had the same boundaries as the parish they were named after.
• The provincial government divides the province into taxing authorities for the purpose of calculating and collecting property taxes. Municipalities, rural communities, and regional municipalities can all have multiple taxing authorities. Taxing authorities follow property lines rather than municipal or parish boundaries ^{[lower-alpha 7]} and often shared the name of an LSD they partially overlapped.
• Statistics Canada uses the term parish for any Census subdivision that is not an incorporated municipality, rural community, regional municipality or Indian reserve. Only 49 CSDs have the same borders as the parish they are named after. ^{[lower-alpha 8]}

List

142 of New Brunswick's parishes are used as the basis of census subdivisions by Statistics Canada. ^[13] Unless noted, all figures below are for census subdivisions, which do not include areas within municipalities, incorporated rural communities, or Indian reserves. Revised census figures based on the 2023 local governance reforms have not been released.

Former and renamed parishes

Name	County	Notes
Fredericton	York	Incorporated as a city in 1848 but still appears in the Territorial Division Act.
Lancaster	Saint John	Amalgamated with the City of Saint John in 1967.
Liverpool	Kent	Original name of Richibucto Parish, changed in 1832.
Palmerston	Kent	Original name of Saint-Louis Parish, changed in 1866.
Portland	Saint John	Amalgamated with the City of Saint John in 1889.
Saint Mary	Kent	Original name of Sainte-Marie Parish, changed in 1973. Still in use for some purposes.

See also

• Demographics of New Brunswick
• Geography of New Brunswick
• List of cities in New Brunswick
• List of municipal amalgamations in New Brunswick
• List of municipalities in New Brunswick
• List of towns in New Brunswick
• List of villages in New Brunswick
• Rural community

Notes

1. Plus the Cities of Saint John and Fredericton, and the Town of Grand Falls, although Fredericton and Grand Falls have both expanded their borders beyond those listed in the TDA.
2. County municipalities were dissolved; 12 quasimunicipal commissions and 63 local improvement districts were converted to villages; and 85 parishes plus 7 former school districts with fire protection and/or other services were made local service districts.
3. Parishes were used to define the boundaries of provincial electoral districts in reports from 1974-1993; ^{[3] [4]} 2006 was the first report to use local service districts to define riding boundaries. ^[5]
4. As of July 2021, by more than a dozen Acts and more than fifty Regulations.
5. Two more parish LSDs - North Esk and South Esk - used different spellings than the parish they were named after; Saint Mary used the parish's old name in English but the modern Sainte-Marie in French.
6. 1 in Albert County, 7 in Charlotte, 1 in Kent, 7 in Kings, 2 in Madawaska, 2 in Queens, 1 in Saint John, 1 in Sunbury, 4 in York.
7. Examples include several properties in the village of Eel River Crossing being taxed as part of the village of Charlo in 2014 ^[10] and voting maps released by the Town of Hampton for its shared recreation services in 2016, including the LSD of the parish of Springfield. ^[11]
8. 52 parishes have no municipality within their limits; 3 of these have Indian reserves.

References

1. "Chapter T-3 Territorial Division Act" (PDF). Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
2. "Chapter I-13 Interpretation Act" (PDF). Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
3. Graham, G. E.; Lanteigne, L.; Cloutier, Mrs. Benoit; Dick, W. B.; Jonah, H. N. (1974). "Appendix A". Report of the Representation and Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission. Government of New Brunswick.
4. Creaghan, William L.M.; Jean, Bernard-A.; Clarke, Janice L.; Thériault, Nicole; Doiron, Claire; Toole, Frederick D.; Groom, Mabel (October 1993). A New Electoral Map for New Brunswick: The Final Report of The Representation and Electoral District Boundaries Commission. Province of New Brunswick. pp. 25–133.
5. Larlee, Margaret; Robichaud, Brigitte; Brown, David; Carrier, Normand; Myers, Richard; Paulin, Réginald; Ward, Pam (20 February 2006). "Appendix B". A New Electoral Map for New Brunswick: Final Report of the Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission. Province of New Brunswick.
6. "Regional Health Authorities Act (R.S.N.B. 2011, c.217)". Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
7. "NEW BRUNSWICK REGULATION 2009-141 under the Public Health Act (O.C. 2009-460)". Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
8. "NEW BRUNSWICK REGULATION 83-120 under the Judicature Act (O.C. 83-707)". Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
9. LeBlanc, Valmond (11 September 2020). "Legislate Assembly of New Brunswick Parliamentary Stylebook" (PDF). Government of New Brunswick. p. 92. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
10. Let's Grow Together: Your future is in your hands! (Report). Government of New Brunswick. 8 October 2014. p. 6.
11. "Public Vote for Residents of the Local Service District of Springfield re: Hampton Regional Multipurpose Facility". Town of Hampton website. 2016.^{[ dead link ]}
12. "Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities)". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
13. Figure derived from counting parishes still used as Census subdivisions. ^[12]