Service dog laws in New Brunswick
New Brunswick has no registry and no certification scheme — and its Human Rights Commission is unusually explicit about emotional support animals.
The Human Rights Commission states it directly: any animal trained to assist a person with a disability can be a service animal under the Act, and "there is no requirement for professional certification or special vests or harnesses."
Where the rights come from
The Human Rights Act, RSNB 2011, c 171, and its duty to accommodate a disability-related need.
Section 6(1) of the Act:
No person, directly or indirectly, alone or with another, by himself, herself or itself or by the interposition of another, shall, based on a prohibited ground of discrimination, (a) deny to any person or class of persons any accommodation, services or facilities available to the public, or (b) discriminate against any person or class of persons with respect to any accommodation, services or facilities available to the public.
What documentation may be asked for
The Commission identifies acceptable documentation as "a note from a doctor or a psychologist, confirming that the animal is required for medical reasons." The person need not disclose a diagnosis.
That is a lower and more workable bar than Ontario's closed list of nine colleges, and considerably lower than the training-and-assessment requirements in Alberta, BC and Nova Scotia.
Emotional support animals — New Brunswick is the exception
Several provinces exclude emotional support animals from their certification schemes outright (British Columbia, Nova Scotia), define them out through a task requirement (Alberta, Newfoundland), or describe their public access as an unsettled, case-by-case question (Saskatchewan). Manitoba, like New Brunswick, looks at what the animal is trained to do rather than its label.
New Brunswick's Commission says emotional support animals "are also protected under human rights legislation if they are part of a person's treatment for a disability," and that a person with a service animal or an emotional support animal "has the same right to access public services, employment, and housing as any other person."
If you have an emotional support animal in New Brunswick, this is the fact worth knowing — and it comes from your health care provider's note, not from any certificate.
Housing
The Commission's position is that "no pets" policies and additional "pet fees" "should not be applied to service or emotional support animals."
What we do and do not do
We are a private registry. New Brunswick has no registry to be, and the Commission has already told you that no certification, vest or harness is required.
What we offer is record-keeping — somewhere to keep the doctor's or psychologist's note that actually matters here, a training log if your dog performs trained tasks, and a scannable profile for a vet or kennel.
Last reviewed: 5 September 2026. Re-checked against the Commission's guideline on 8 September 2026: the emotional support animal quotation was corrected to the Commission's exact words ("if they are part of"), the pet-fee line now quotes "should not be applied" rather than asserting "cannot", and the national superlative was removed as unsourced. The gnb.ca renters page is a landing page that links the Commission's PDF; the PDF is the source. Verify current requirements at the primary sources above before acting.