“The imaging feature allows clients to view original documents from August 2004 forward,” says Minister of the Provincial Treasury Mitch Murphy. “Instead of getting up from the computer terminal, retrieving large ledgers and looking through them, the client simply accesses the desired document by clicking on the document’s image icon.”

The first version of CHRIS was introduced in 1995 and provided an automated index of the land registry documents, as of that date. Prior to automation, the indexes for hundreds of thousands of documents in the Registry Office had to be manually searched in huge ledgers.

Land registry documents include Conveyances, Mortgages, Satisfactions, Easements and Mechanics Liens. With CHRIS, various search methods such as the owner’s name, first and third letters of their last name, land parcel number and document type are used to find a specific document. On average, there are 13,000 searches conducted on CHRIS each month.

Over the past few years, the number of registered documents has dramatically increased – with more than 20,000 documents being registered in 2003 alone. Automation has helped to address a growing lack of storage space and has allowed the existing number of employees to manage the increased volume of work.

The updated version of CHRIS was launched on August 23, 2004 and was designed to give the user easier access to more information. In addition to being able to view original documents, users can now search for survey plans by plan number or approval number.

The Taxation and Property Records Division is working closely with the Real Property Committee of the Law Society of Prince Edward Island to ensure CHRIS is effectively and efficiently meeting the needs of the legal community.

“CHRIS has saved us a lot of time,” says Registrar of Deeds Glenda Roberts. “Before automation, transactions would have to be written in a number of books – all by hand. Today, once it’s typed in, it’s there.”

The stream-lined process eliminates a large amount of duplication.

To access the CHRIS system, clients must go to the Registry Office in Charlottetown or Summerside. Registry staff will instruct users on how to utilize the system, which is available free of charge. Regular clients include lawyers, title searchers, surveyors, historians and realtors.

Future plans for Taxation and Property Records Division include providing land registry information via the Internet.