Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that if someone requires a copy of their marriage certificate they would apply to Vital Statistics and remit a fee of ten dollars, but you may receive your marriage certificate with the incorrect date of birth recorded on it.

In 1970 Vital Statistics acquired a new system which changed the format of marriage certificates. Prior to 1970 all marriage certificates had the age of the person on them. Once converted to the new format, they required a date of birth and the system arbitrarily inserted January 1st of the year that coincided with the age recorded on file. Therefore, a person's date of birth became January 1st of the year of their age. If you would like to have a marriage certificate with the proper information on it, Vital Statistics then requires you to remit twenty dollars, along with an application to make a correction or change to your marriage certificate.

Vital Statistics say that they cannot amend the certificate without an application and a twenty-dollar fee. There would be no amendment to make had they not inserted the incorrect date of birth to begin with. This is a very time consuming process. What should take about a week then is now taking several weeks, as well as costing an additional twenty dollars to the applicant.

Mr. Speaker, we had this situation brought to our attention by a constituent in the process of getting a copy of their marriage certificate. This may sound like a small thing, but these are the little things that really annoy people.