Yukon moving to digital land title registry

The Government of Yukon has awarded Information Services Corporation a 20-year contract to digitize its land title registration processes. The new registry – the Yukon Electronic Title Information (YETI) system – will cost an average of $229,000 a year to maintain and support.

Once the new system is fully operational in 2019, users will be able to search all title information online. They will also be able to send fees through a secure online payment system and register documents electronically. The Land Titles Office of the Department of Justice will work with stakeholders to ensure that YETI’s digital capabilities are implemented effectively in a way that meets clients’ needs.

With one of the last paper-based registries in Canada, Yukon has required clients to hand-carry or mail documents to register an instrument or transfer a title. Digitizing the registry and enabling online services is necessary to keep up with the pace of a modern economy and meet increasing public demands.

A digital land title registry is a more efficient way to support the territory’s growing housing sector and promotes our goal of providing better online services to the public. This new digital system will make title searching, and eventually registration, more convenient and accessible by allowing it to be carried out online as well as in person.

Minister of Justice Tracy-Anne McPhee

Quick facts 
  • Information Services Corporation, a Saskatchewan-based leading provider of registry and information management services for public data and records, has operated Saskatchewan’s electronic land titles registry since 2001.

  • Long-term software and service contracts are standard in the land titles registry sector. Ontario has a 50-year service contract with its provider, while British Columbia has a 60-year contract. Long-term contracts ensure the maintenance of a stable registration system upon which stakeholders and the public can rely on.

  • No Yukon company submitted a proposal for YETI during the public tendering process.

  • The registry’s data will be stored on servers in one secure data centre in Regina, backed up to a second secure data centre in that city. Weekly copies of the data will be stored in Whitehorse to reduce any risk of loss.

  • While the registry will be digitized, clients of the Land Titles Office will be able to request paper documents, if they are needed.

  • The Government of Yukon will pay Information Services Corporation $5.6 million over 20 years to implement and support the YETI system. Total costs of the system to the Government of Yukon will be $7.1 million over the term of the contract.

Media contact 

Sunny Patch
Cabinet Communications
867-393-7478
sunny.patch@gov.yk.ca

Catherine Young
Communications, Justice
867-667-8050
catherine.young@gov.yk.ca

News release #: 
18-073