Nisga'a Nation to Implement Land Registry System

Based on the modern version of the Torrens form of title registration system, the present Nisga'a registry system was developed as a result of the 1999 Nisga'a Final Agreement that was signed by the Nisga'a Nation, Canada, and the Province of British Columbia. This treaty resolved several unsettled governance and land-related issues after 113 years of difficult negotiations. The Nisga'a Nation became the first indigenous community in Canada to enter into a modern treaty and implement a land registration system.

In the past, Nisga'a citizens were given an entitlement interest in land that could not be used as collateral to access credit through financial loans. The issuance of fee simple title - denoting private property rights - will address this issue while seeking to facilitate economic development for the Nisga'a people.

Collier Azak, Director of Lands and Resources stated that "The most important part of granting fee simple title to individuals is the certainty of a strong and reliable title system for registered Nisga'a Lands. The system that we have been using since signing our Treaty, while accurate and legally rigorous, cannot manage the complexity of fee simple interests. We are very pleased to be working with ILS on this initiative. "

ILS' Project Manager Jeffrey Euwema said, "The Nisga'a are a people who share a rich cultural history that includes a spiritual reverence for and close association with the lands in northern British Columbia. In this project we will work to build a partnership with the Nisga'a so as to implement an effective land administration regimen based on ILS tool sets." ILS technologies will help the Nisga'a Nation manage and administer all interests and charges for real property by linking the geography at the parcel level with the legal attributes at the titles registry.

ILS' approach will make use of ILS' MultiCadastre software to manage, edit, and analyse cadastral data as well as ILS' LRS software to organise land title transactions integrated with the cadastre information.