The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Paul Davis, Minister of Service NL:

Digitization of Deeds Project Preserves Historic Documents

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in this Honourable House to provide an update on an important project to preserve historical documents within my department.

The digitization of deeds project has been undertaken by the Commercial Registrations Division within Service NL. The digitization process involves the scanning of historical documents to preserve them in digital format.

Mr. Speaker, digitization will not only preserve these historical records of importance to the province but once integrated into our online Companies and Deeds Online system will make them easily accessible to various stakeholders. When complete, the entire Deeds Registry will be digitized and available electronically to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our verification and digitization team began work on the project in 2005, and by May 2007 had completed the conversion of deeds documents from microfilm to digital format for the period of 1982 to June 2004. This data represented 7.7 million pages and is now available online through our Companies and Deeds Online system.

Following the completion of phase one in 2007, the team is now working on the verification of data and the digitization of paper based records for the period of 1825 to 1982.

In addition, we recently partnered with the Queen’s Printer to undertake a pilot project for the digitization of bound paper volumes. This work involves the physical scanning of paper records.

Mr. Speaker, the preservation of data and vital events is an important aspect of our work at Service NL. This information tells the story of the real property history in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and we are pleased to report that the project is progressing smoothly.

Thank-you Mr. Speaker.

2012 06 11                     1:45 p.m.