Whereas the issue of outdated covenants that contain discriminatory language is one that affects municipalities across the Province; And whereas it is cost-prohibitive for local governments to individually and proactively identify and report covenants containing discriminatory language to the Land Title and Survey Authority LTSA: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request that the Province: 1direct the Registrar of the LTSA to proactively search for and identify discriminatory language contained in registered covenants; and 2provide the Registrar of the LTSA with the ability to delete andor redact any occurrences of discriminatory language identified.
Ministry of Forests Discriminating covenants are not enforceable. Section 222 of the Land Title Act operates against any registered covenant that directly or indirectly has a discriminating effect, whenever registered and in whatever form created, making discriminating covenants void and of no effect. If a landowner has questions about discriminating covenants or would like to initiate the process to have an endorsement be made on an existing land title record noting that the covenant is void and of no effect, the landowner should contact the Registrar of Land Titles at the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC LTSA. When contacted by a landowner, the Registrar will make an endorsement by the covenant indicating that it has been cancelled pursuant to section 222 of the Land Title Act. There is no cost for this amendment. Because the Registrar is prohibited under the Land Title Act from erasing or rendering illegible the original words on a record, the words are struck through so that it is more apparent on the face of a record that the discriminating language is void. The LTSA has made sustained efforts to amend records over the years; however, with millions of both physical and digital documents the effort to identify documents with discriminating clauses is ongoing. Most recently, the LTSA has engaged with Simon Fraser University to explore other techniques which assist in identifying occurrences of these covenants.
Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia The Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia LTSA strongly condemns discrimination in any form. In 1978, legislative changes Section 222 of the Land Title Act rendered any registered covenant that directly or indirectly has a discriminatory effect, whenever registered and in whatever form created, void and unenforceable. Subsequently, a significant review of the land title office digital records to identify affected titles was completed and the Director of Land Titles issued Practice Note 01-15 to outline the impacts of this change to LTSAs practices. The LTSA has initiated a project to use advanced technology to identify any remaining land title records that are affected. The project uses artificial intelligence to search digitized records for a list of discriminatory words. This project is showing promise but needs more work. With over two million active titles in BCcombined with millions of documents in printed form such as microfilm, bound book volumes, and survey plansand millions of transactions a year, finding and striking through discriminatory covenants is a time and labour-intensive process. When discriminatory covenants are found, the Registrar of Land Titles will amend the records by striking through the words, to comprehensively reflect that the discriminatory covenants are no longer valid. The Registrar does not have the authority to erase original words of a land title document or make them illegible. Property owners or others who find discriminatory covenants can contact the Registrar to request it be struck through, without cost. Any other remedy would require provincial direction and potentially amendments to the Land Title Act.