WHEREAS local governments rely on land title records and survey plans from the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC LTSA in their day to day operations beyond those searches conducted for assessment or taxation purposes; AND WHEREAS the Land Title Act limits the fee exemption to land title register searches conducted for taxation and assessment purposes only, resulting in significant additional costs to local governments: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urge the Province to amend the Land Title Act to expand the purposes under which a local government can search the records of the land title office without charge.
Ministry of Forests, Lands Natural Resource Operations As an independent, not-for-profit statutory corporation, the LTSA operates on a fee-for-service basis. The service fees fully offset the costs associated with delivering the services and continue to support BCs highly sophisticated and reliable land title and survey system. Enabling broad exemptions and unrestricted access for customers to access the LTSAs services is inconsistent with this model. If fees are reduced for one stakeholder, they must be unfairly increased for other clients to ensure revenue neutrality. The Land Title Act authorizes certain exemptions for entities like First Nations, Crown corporations, local governments and improvement districts for the purpose of assessment or taxation and incidental matters. In May 2015, the fee schedule for land title products was simplified, and fees were rebalanced so that they reflect actual costs of delivering services.