Nova Scotia speeds up application process for child abuse registry search

Nova Scotians needing confirmation they are not on the provincial child abuse registry will be able to get confirmation letters sooner, the province announced Friday.

The registrykeeps a record of the names of people who have been found by Nova Scotia's courts to have caused harm to a child, said a news release.

The province said a new online application process will allow people to get the letters within two to three weeks after applying.

The release didn't state the previous timeline, but people had to mail in applications before they were manually processed.

"We want to make the process easier and more convenient for Nova Scotians to get the documents they need for their work or volunteer roles,"Minister of Community Services Karla MacFarlane said in the release.

Before moving the process online, 40,000 paper applications were processed manually a year.