A decision has been made about privatizing three registries in Nova Scotia, but Business Minister Mark Furey said it will still be a few days before he is ready to announce it.

Hundreds of people work for the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the Nova Scotia Land Registry and the Registry of Joint Stock Companies. The fate of their jobs has been up in the air since Furey said last spring the province was looking at partnering with the private sector.

On Thursday, Furey said he knows it's been a difficult wait for the employees.

"I believe we've done a very good job communicating with our employees internally. It's a very sensitive issue to them. And I want to continue to respect that line of communication," he said.

Furey said his department has completed an evaluation of the pros and cons to such a deal, and he has made a decision, but was not ready to say what it was.

"We will ensure that our employees are the first to know and certainly share that information publicly either parallel or immediately thereafter," he said.

Hundreds of people work for the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the Nova Scotia Land Registry and the Registry of Joint Stock Companies. (CBC)

The three registries are due for upgrades worth about $30 million in total. The majority of that cost is needed to overhaul the Registry of Motor Vehicles in the next four to five years.

The registries earn about $120 million annually and cost a fraction of that to run — between $30 million and $35 million a year.

But Furey said the government could avoid future capital costs and redirect that money elsewhere if the private sector took over.

Furey says if the plan is a go, the next step would be finding a company to do the work.

Other provinces, including Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, have similar partnerships. Manitoba received a $75-million upfront payment for its land and personal property registry. The royalties are projected to grow from $11 million to $24 million over the 30-year deal.

If approved in Nova Scotia, the companies would provide registry services while the government would be responsible for regulation, setting fees and maintaining ownership of the data. The companies would collect user fees and pay some sort of royalty to the government.