This new act will substantially change the way security interests in personal property collateral are registered with the province. Financial institutions, lawyers and many other commercial organizations filed and searched documents in the court registries through a paper intensive and inefficient process for many years. In the future, this procedure will no longer be necessary. These organizations will enter notice-based information about security interests in an on-line province-wide Personal Property Registry from their office or home personal computers. The existing documents will continue to be in effect for three years. This new system will provide improved access to information, reduced administrative procedures and improved client responsiveness.

"This will provide legislative standardization with the rest of the country, which has been a requirement of the financial community for many years," said Mr. Murphy.

Access to the new Personal Property Registry will be through Atlantic Canada On-Line* (ACOL), a public-private partnership between Unisys Canada Inc. and the four Atlantic Provinces. It will be the second province whose personal property registry will be available through ACOL. This new system will support multi-province registration and search capabilities via the Internet.

The proclamation of the new Personal Property Security Act will result in the repeal of the following Acts:

• Assignment of Book Debts Act
• Bills of Sales Act
• Bulk Sales Act
• Conditional Sales Act
• Corporation Securities Registration Act
• Personal Property Security Act (1990)
• Potato Crop Mortgage Act (1988)

Several other acts will be amended with this new law, some of which include the Family Law Act, the Judgment and Execution Act, and the Warehousemen’s Lien Act.

For additional information, contact Greg White or see the official press release.

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Revised: 10 February 2000