Debit Card Option Improves Service

Nova Scotians will soon see more improvements in customer service at Access Nova Scotia Centres and offices of the Registry of Motor Vehicles and Vital Statistics across the province.

The Department of Business and Consumer Services and CIBC have signed an agreement that will give Nova Scotians a direct debit payment option in 15 government service offices by March 1999. The agreement follows a successful pilot program at the Dartmouth Access Nova Scotia Centre this past summer.

"We are single-minded in our focus to make it easier for people to conduct their day-to-day business with government," said Keith Colwell, Minister of Business and Consumer Services. "The debit card system adds value to the services we currently provide. This option is a convenient, secure and increasingly popular payment method that rates high with our customers."

Offices of the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Middleton, Digby, Amherst, Port Hawkesbury and Baddeck, and Access Nova Scotia Centres in Halifax and Kentville will be equipped with the debit card system by January. The remaining offices will be outfitted by March.

A 1997 Corporate Research Associates Omnibus survey ranked the debit card payment option third among Nova Scotians' preferred method of payment for provincial goods and services. Forty per cent of those surveyed preferred payment by cash, 25 per cent by cheque and 24 per cent by debit card.

Jane McCann, CIBC's regional manager of merchant card services, said the overall usage of debit cards among Canadians is growing phenomenally. "Use of the debit system for direct payment has been growing steadily since its introduction five years ago. CIBC is pleased to work with the department to better meet the needs of Nova Scotia consumers."

Each year, staff at the Department of Business and Consumer Services conduct more than 1.7 million transactions with Nova Scotians. On average, that translates into about two transactions per resident, per year.

The Department of Business and Consumer Services' mandate is to provide citizens and businesses in the province with better access to the services and programs most commonly needed by the public. The department includes the following services: Access Nova Scotia Centres, Registry of Motor Vehicles, Vital Statistics, Consumer and Commercial Relations, Financial Institutions, Nova Scotia Government Bookstore, Public Enquiries, Provincial Tax Commission and Registry of Joint Stock Companies.