Upper Paleozoic successions in the area of Bathurst, New Brunswick, were studied in an attempt to solve long-standing stratigraphic debates and to correlate the Carboniferous geology of this area with that of the adjacent Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. Based on new spore dates and petrographic analyses, the abandoned Bathurst Formation is reintroduced. Paleogeographic reconstructions from facies analysis and provenance studies indicate that the Mississippian Ristigouche Basin formed the source area of the Pennsylvanian Central Basin due to a fault inversion event that occurred near the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. As a result, the Mississippian Bonaventure Formation, which was sourced from the south, is separated by the east-west striking Rocky Brook-Millstream Fault from the lower Pennsylvanian Bathurst Formation, which was sourced from the north with reworked detritus of the former unit. A possible correlation is made between Pennsylvanian sedimentation in northern New Brunswick and Pennsylvanian faulting in the adjacent Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec.