News Release Archive
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS--PROPERTY REGISTRY ACT ------------------------------------------------------------ The provincial government is making major changes in the way personal property is registered and secured throughout Nova Scotia. As a first step, Municipal Affairs Minister Sandy Jolly introduced a Personal Property Security Bill in the Legislature today. The proposed legislation is based on the New Brunswick Personal Property Security Act. Commonly registered items of personal property include such items as motor vehicles, mobile homes, and major appliances. The changes contained in the legislation will bring the process of registering personal property security in line with practices elsewhere in Canada. Many jurisdictions in Canada have abandoned the old personal property registry systems and adopted the modern Personal Property Security Act model. "Nova Scotia, through the bill introduced today, is joining with its sister provinces and territories and moving to a well-recognized, proven system," said the minister. "We are not reinventing the wheel but supporting the move to a consistent Canadian personal property security system." The legislation was put through an extensive consultation process prior to its introduction. The draft act and proposed administrative regulations were widely circulated to the banking, commercial, legal and academic communities this past July. Comments received were carefully considered and incorporated into the draft bill and proposed regulations where possible, the minister said. "Existing legislation dealing with personal property is outdated," said the minister. "This new act will improve the environment for commercial activities in this province. This legislative reform process was undertaken jointly with the Department of Justice. There will be one act and one province-wide system." The minister outlined several reasons for an overhaul of the system. Currently there are four main personal property security statutes: the Bills of Sale Act, the Conditional Sales Act, the Assignment of Book Debts Act and the Corporations Securities Registration Act. Each act has its own set of registration and affidavit requirements. Registration is currently on a county basis in a registry of deeds office. There is no provision for a centralized province-wide registry to ensure the protection of financial interests in a more mobile society. The minister said the existing registry is paper-based and offers no automated search capability. "The net effect is a fragmented, costly and cumbersome system," she said. For many years the financial and legal communities have expressed frustration over the existing system. Increasingly the difficulty in searching documents is causing individuals and firms to abandon the system. For example, when a consumer buys a used car today, that individual could have to conduct a manual search in 19 registry offices throughout the province to be certain there are no outstanding debts against that vehicle. Most people take a risk that they are not assuming someone else's debts rather than attempt to use the existing system. "This new legislation will streamline registration processes and enable the use of a virtually paperless personal property registry system," the minister said. The benefits of such a system include: a significant reduction in paper burden and storage costs for registry operations; self-entry of information by clients, allowing them better control over information transfers into the system; vastly improved search capabilities, allowing potential purchasers of personal property a far greater degree of assurance of the financial encumbrances, if any, on the item; substantially improved security and control over personal property records; and a major increase in the level of service to clients via the institution of electronic registration and search, a particularly important feature to the business community. The long term goal is for the business community to be able to do searches directly from their offices. The minister said work began this fall on implementation of a new automated system in registries throughout the province. The Department of Municipal Affairs, which operates the personal property registries, is partnering with the private sector to develop and implement an electronic registry. UNISYS was selected as a partner through the government's cooperative business solutions process after a public tender call. The new act has a delayed proclamation date to allow time to put the new electronic system in place, expected in late 1996. The regulations will also not come into effect until the act does. This delayed implementation period has the added benefit of allowing plenty of time for users to educate themselves on the new system and financial and commercial institutions to carry out any necessary staff training. -30- Contact: Christine McCulloch 902-424-7485 trp Oct. 30, 1995