News Release Archive
HOUSING/MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS--Personal Property Registry On Line
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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repealed and a number of others amended.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.
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Contact: Michelle Whelan
Housing and Municipal Affairs
902-424-6336
E-mail: mwhelan@gov.ns.ca
Bill Stapleton
Unisys
902-421-2267
E-mail: williampstapleton@unn.unisys.com
ngr Nov. 18, 1997 4:10 p.m.
