ISC COMPLETES TITLE CONVERSION

Released on April 30, 2003

A significant milestone has been reached in the automation of the province's Land Titles System with the substantial completion of titles conversion.

"In less than two years, ISC has taken 116 years of historical paper documents and converted them into electronic data that is available over the Internet 24 hours a day," Minister responsible for the Information Services Corporation of Saskatchewan (ISC) Eric Cline said. "This one time investment to convert about 900,000 land titles into electronic images will bring benefits to Saskatchewan for years to come."

In addition to land titles, documents like mortgage registrations or road easements are also available online. Customers can also order documents online, check the status of their account and access detailed geographical descriptions of property in the province. The linkage to Geographic Information Services (GIS) is about two-thirds complete and scheduled for completion in December, resulting in a parcel picture being available for substantially all titles in the province.

"Converting these documents resulted in a necessary one-time cost of about $17 million, approximately one-third of the total forecasted construction cost for the LAND Project," Cline said. "Customers are already realizing the benefits of our decision to integrate the province's Land Survey and Land Titles Systems, and making them available at www.isc-online.ca. The waiting period to process about 80 per cent of the standard land registry transactions is down to three business days, from as long as three weeks in the paper-based system. About 90 per cent of all transactions are conducted electronically meaning people are doing their business from their offices or homes and not driving to an office as was required in the paper-system."

"As title conversion winds down and we near completion of GIS conversion, our focus now is to work with our customers to improve service levels," ISC President and Chief Executive Officer Mark MacLeod said. "For example, some employees with experience converting titles have now been reassigned to reduce the backlog for more complex transactions, such as mineral certifications. By working with our customers, like those in the resource sector, we'll be able to identify acceptable service levels and the costs associated with providing those services. We are committed to working with our customers so that they can realize the full potential of the LAND System."

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For More Information, Contact:

Shawna Kelly Information Services Corporation Regina Phone: (306)787-3447 Email: shawna.kelly@isc-online.ca Cell: (306)535-3309