The provincial and federal government jointly announced yesterday that Nova Scotia parents are now able to register the birth of their newborn baby using one application form.
Before, mothers and fathers needed multiple forms to apply for their baby’s Social Insurance Number and Canada’s Child Benefit Service.
“It’s already made it easier because we don’t have to worry about filling out extra forms, we just took care of it in the hospital room,” new mother Lynn Bowen Avery said yesterday at the IWK Health Centre, holding her four-week-old son, Joshua. She has another child who is 18-months-old.
“It’s hard to remember at this point,” she said, thinking back to the old registration process. “I remember we had a lot of forms to fill out, and that didn’t seem to be the case this time.”
The new service is the first in Canada and will cost the federal government about $500,000 in tax dollars, but new parents will not pay for the new service upfront.
“It is always good when we can make life easier for parents who already have to deal with a lot of things that come from having a new baby in the family,” Ramona Jennex, Minister of Service Nova Scotia, said yesterday in a release.
Every child born in the province must be registered within 30 days of his or her birth in order to get a birth certificate, which is in turn needed to garner documents such as a passport, health card or drivers license.
