Instituted in 2001, when Lieutenant Governor Arthur Maxwell House granted Royal Assent to the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador Act,[1] the order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to honour current or former Newfoundland and Labrador residents for conspicuous achievements in any field,[2] being thus described as the highest honour amongst all others conferred by the Newfoundland and Labrador Crown.

[7] The process of finding qualified individuals begins with submissions from the public to the Secretary of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador Advisory Council,[8] which consists of the Clerk of the Executive Council and five persons appointed by the lieutenant governor: two Members of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador and four other individuals.

[9] This committee then meets at least once annually to make its selected recommendations to the Executive Council and works with that body in narrowing down the potential appointees to a list that will be submitted to the lieutenant governor;[2] posthumous nominations are not accepted, though an individual who dies after his or her name was submitted to the Advisory Council can still be retroactively made a Member of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

[11] The lieutenant governor, ex officio a Member and the Chancellor of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador,[12] then makes all appointments into the fellowship's single grade of membership by an Order in Council that bears the viceroyal sign-manual and the Great Seal of the province;[2] thereafter, the new Members are entitled to use the post-nominal letters ONL.

The main badge consists of a gold medallion in the form of a stylized sarracenia purpurea (or purple pitcher plant)—the official provincial flower—with the obverse in marbleized green enamel with gold edging, and bearing at its centre the escutcheon of the arms of Newfoundland and Labrador, all surmounted by a St. Edward's Crown symbolizing the Canadian monarch's role as the fount of honour.