News release

Vital Statistics Go Online

Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations (Oct. 2000 - March 2014)

SERVICE N.S./MUNICIPAL RELATIONS -Vital Statistics Go Online


Nova Scotia is making access easier for the thousands of people who request vital statistics each year. Online services for birth, death and marriage certificates are now available.

Service Nova Scotia Online Express, www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr , offers a quick, convenient way to request and pay for birth, death and marriage certificates from the Registry of Vital Statistics. Services can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection -- from homes to offices to libraries. Documents ordered online are then mailed to the applicants.

"Offering online services gives Nova Scotians one more way of accessing vital information," said Angus MacIsaac, minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations. "Our goal is to provide timely, convenient and secure e-services to the public of this province. By providing online access, our doors are 'virtually' open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Online requests mean Nova Scotians now have three options for obtaining certificates -- in person, by mail and online.

In the first three days of operation, the online service handled 10 per cent of all requests for birth, death and marriage certificates. Each month, Vital Statistics receives over 4,200 requests; previously handled by mail or in person at the downtown Halifax location.

"Nova Scotia residents, especially seniors and people with disabilities, will find our new services highly accessible," said Elizabeth Crowley Meagher, deputy registrar general of the Division of Vital Statistics. "Information needed for passports, pensions, name changes and administration of estates can be requested from anywhere in the country, or the world. You don't need to drive anywhere or mail in anything. And you can pay right online using your credit card"

Customers are saying the service is very efficient and easy to use. Between April 1 and June 10, 96 per cent of customers rated Registry of Motor Vehicle and Vital Statistics online services as good, very good or excellent.

"It is excellent that the government is providing flexible access to this information," said Archdeacon Paul Smith, Christ Church, Dartmouth. "I can now recommend the Internet site to our parishioners."

The province has received more positive feedback on its existing e-government services and it plans to introduce more in the coming months. The Registry of Motor Vehicles has received over 1,200 requests for its online vehicle-registration renewals and change of address forms since the April launch. Enhanced Web- based services for the Nova Scotia Business Registry are also being introduced in the near future.

Service Nova Scotia Express kiosks -- new self-serve computer terminals -- are be located in every county through Access Nova Scotia and Registry of Deeds offices. Twenty-two kiosks in 19 office locations allow citizens to obtain government services and products more easily than ever before. Internet access is also available through more than 200 Community Access Program (CAP) sites throughout the province.

Other online services available through Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations include the Personal Property Registry, Property Records Online and the Registry of Motor Vehicles .