Vital statistics (birth certificates, deaths, etc.), driver's licenses, vehicle registration, business registration, healthcare cards, etc. in my province are not even handled directly by a government office, but by private companies contracted by the government. They are called registry agents. I imagine if an article about Alberta just dropped the translated word agent d'enregistrement, no one in France (or even the rest of Canada) would have any clue what it talks about.

http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/find-a-registry-agent.cf...