For the Quebec provincial government, the problem was “How do we transfer 180 million pages of old, paper-based land registration records, dating from 1841 and identifying more than 3.7 million properties, to a web-based infrastructure and cost-effectively bring one of the oldest land registry systems in Canada into the twenty-first century?”

The solution presented by a Quebec consulting company, DMR Conseil (known as Fujitsu Consulting outside of Quebec), not only did the job, but won an award for ‘IT Project of the Year’ in the process. Professionals and property owners will no longer have to tediously search though often difficult-to-decipher documents to clarify ownership issues and record real estate transactions.

According to DMR spokespeople, the new web-based land registry information system allows the public to access land information without having to sift through mounds of paper and to do so anytime, anywhere.

The reformed Quebec land registry information system (SIRF) at Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources integrates new business processes and enterprise transformation features as well as B2B e-commerce and document management functions. DMR Conseil worked closely with business partners, including Bell Canada, to complete their project in three years.

“The Québec government wanted a solution that would allow professionals and the public to access a secure and centralized source of land registry information with client/server technologies,” says André Pouliot, Senior Vice President, DMR Conseil.

The ‘IT Project of the Year’ Award recognizes excellence in project management within Canada’s IT community. The award is sponsored by the Canadian chapter of the Project Management Institute and Computing Canada.

The rules governing land registration in this province are laid down in the Civil Code of Québec, which replaced the Civil Code of Lower Canada on January 1, 1994 and differs from the system used in other parts of Canada. Generally, governments institute official registers of ownership, boundaries and other real estate details called cadastres for tax-related (property tax), legal (registration of real rights) or juridical (delimitation of ownership) reasons. Québec originally created its cadastre for legal reasons, and this same aspect has continued to take precedence, despite the recent reform of the Civil Code. Over the years, the cadastre has been used for other purposes, including establishing property taxes, urban planning, managing utility networks and enforcing territorial legislation.

Provinces across Canada are in various stages of digitizing their land registry documents. In 1992, the Québec government began this process which will cost in excess of half a billion dollars. The government expects to have converted its records to a computerized system in all of its more than 70 land registry offices late in 2003. The new system will be a product of public and private sector expertise in the geomatics and cadastral fields, but the only thing most Quebecois will be aware of is that the Internet has brought another world of information to a screen near them.

Published: August 13, 2002

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