Press Release

Tuesday, November 18, 1997

Released by Nova Scotia Department of Housing and Municipal Affairs

Personal Property Registry On Line

Halifax, NS -- Nova Scotians are seeing a dramatic change in the way the province's 18 registries of deeds operate.

This month, the simultaneous introduction of the Personal Property Security Act and an electronic provincewide Personal Property Registry System means better service for the business community and the public.

"It's a whole new way of doing business. The project is both a technology solution as well as a reform of the legislation and business processes in the Personal Property Registry," said Guy Brown, Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister. "It provides an electronic provincewide registry instead of the old system of 18 paper-centred, county-based registries."

The system began operations and the Personal Property Security Act came into effect Nov. 3. Also on that date, seven acts were repealed and a number of others amended. This major legislative change was welcomed by the financial, legal and business communities, which have served as an important source of input to the project, said the minister.

Documents are filed within the registry relating to the use of personal property -- such as cars, mobile homes, furniture and airplanes -- as security for a financial arrangement between a borrower and a lender.

Prior to Nov. 3, the entire system was paper-based and could only be accessed on a county-by-county basis by actually visiting a county registry office. This meant the interests of the public and the financial and legal communities were not being adequately served because the previous system was fragmented, cumbersome and costly, said the minister.

The legislation relating to personal property transactions, along with the operations of the registry itself, has become notice-based. This means the registry will maintain an electronic database that will direct clients to the institution or individual holding the security documents; the registry will no longer keep the actual documents.

This will greatly enhance the efficiency of registry operations and make client service far more user-friendly, said the minister.

Similar legislation is in effect in six other provinces. However, Nova Scotia's system is the most advanced to date in terms of ease of use and technical sophistication, said the minister. This has been made possible by combining the experiences of the other provinces with the business and technical expertise of Unisys Canada Inc. The computerized service is available though Atlantic Canada On-Line (ACOL).

The ACOL system is specifically designed to provide on-line access by government clients to government databases for registrations, retrievals, searches and updates.

"The Personal Property Registry System is an excellent model of the type of application envisioned for ACOL," said David Wagner, president and CEO of Unisys Canada.

For additional information, contact Michelle Whelan or Bill Stapleton, or see the official press release.

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