After a 17-month review costing $825,000, Nova Scotia has opted not to privatize three provincial government registries.

Officials said the revenue gains from an outsourcing were marginal. The registries generate $105 million in net revenue for Nova Scotia annually.

"We have decided an alternate service delivery approach with a private sector partner is not the right approach," Service Nova Scotia Minister Mark Furey said Monday.

"It is not the best option … a government-led approach offers certainty."

Workers lobbied against privatization

The government said the current model needs improvement, which it committed to do.

The Liberal government had been considering outsourcing its registry of motor vehicles, registry of joint stocks and land registry.

The public sector union representing 320 registry employees had been lobbying against the outsourcing with a TV and radio ad campaign called McNeil's Movers.

Private sector interest

Five vendors expressed interest in taking over the registries, including Teranet, which has decades-long contracts to run registries for the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

The other vendors were Info Services Corporation of Saskatchewan, Plenary Group, Property Valuation Services Corporation of Halifax and Infosys.

Officials say vendors were leading consortiums.

Millions needed for upgrades

Government officials say they will issue a request for proposals in the next 10 to 12 weeks to overhaul the registry of joint stocks; information technology tenders to upgrade the other two registries will also be issued.

Joint stocks requires $4 million to $5 million in upgrades. It carries out 175,000 transactions a year.

The land registry needs $3 million to $4 million in upgrades; it does 200,000 transactions annually.

The registry of motor vehicles, with two million transactions per year, needs $25 million in upgrades.