The past fiscal year can only be described as a COVID-19 rebound year – and rebound we did. Like many organizations, businesses, and government services, Public Legal Education and Information Service of New Brunswick (PLEIS-NB) had been devastated by the pandemic and its restrictions. Getting back on track in 2021-22 was no easy feat. We had lost staff, shut our doors to face-to-face traffic, and moved premises. We were forced to put many of our core operational activities on hold, including updating publications and resources, collecting data on our activities, reporting on outcomes, and so on.
Despite these barriers, we learned quickly how to function via social media and communication technologies such as Zoom and Teams. Our challenges of rebuilding were exacerbated by the fact that, after 32 years as Executive Director, I had given notice to the Board that I would be retiring once they held a competition, hired a new Executive Director, and completed a restructuring process.
I am proud to say that after some inevitable delays and a period of knowledge transfer, we accomplished our operational goals by the end of the fiscal year. Our new Executive Director, Michelle Thompson, joined us in February 2022, freeing up the Acting Executive Director, Amber Chisholm, to return to her new position as Associate Director, and enabling me to fully enjoy the benefits of retirement as of April 2022. Most importantly, I am pleased to report that PLEIS-NB has once again emerged as an exemplary leader and an inspiration to those involved in promoting access to justice and helping the public know the law.
In 2021-22, PLEIS-NB completed year 3 of our ongoing Safer Places NB project, a 5-year effort funded by Justice Canada aimed at addressing sexual harassment in the workplace.
In the winter of 2022, we finalized work on a new series of booklets about planning ahead to address recent changes to New Brunswick legislation on powers of attorney and health care directives – Advance Health Care Directives, Enduring Powers of Attorney, and Being an Attorney. These publications also come with sample forms for those aspects of planning ahead which can be done on one’s own without the help of a lawyer.
PLEIS-NB also completed the textual changes to the upcoming twelfth edition of our guide to Doing Your Own Divorce in New Brunswick. The new version of this guide incorporates much-needed information about the uncontested divorce process in regions of the province that now operate under a case management model governed by rule 81 of the New Brunswick Rules of Court. Once translated, we hope to print the new guide in both official languages before the end of 2022.
Finally, we made progress on our initiative to create freely-accessible, annotated, and fillable versions of New Brunswick’s most commonly-used family court forms to be made available to the public on our website. This project is in the final stages of wrapping up and will also act as a supplement to our family law information sessions, where participants can go directly to the Family Law NB website to access forms referenced during a workshop.
PLEIS-NB ended this year on a high note, welcoming new staff and new opportunities. Our successes over the past year were only possible because of the diligence, dedication, and hard work of our core team, who continued to provide the public with high quality legal information services even in this year full of change.
As always, we owe a tremendous thanks to our core funders, the New Brunswick Law Foundation and the Department of Justice Canada, and our constant supporters in New Brunswick’s Department of Justice and Public Safety. They have been incredible partners to PLEIS over this transitional period and we look forward to many more years of fruitful collaboration.
We also want to thank all of the students, lawyer volunteers, and Board members who have given their time, knowledge, and insight to PLEIS this year. Public legal education is a community effort and we are very fortunate to have such a tremendous community of practice.