News Release Archive
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS--PROPERTY REGISTRY ACT
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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outdated," said the minister.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.
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Contact: Christine McCulloch 902-424-7485
trp Oct. 30, 1995