14 December 1998

Federal Government Makes Recommendations for Year 2000 Problem

The following information is from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's "Canadexport" publication.

There can be no doubt that the Year 2000 problem is one of the most significant challenges that Canada and the rest of the world must face. This is the opening sentence of the federal government's response to The Year 2000 Problem - Where is Canada Now? (the Sixth Report of the House of
Commons Standing Committee on Industry).

The response goes on to update the initiatives and activities that the federal government has taken and will take to prepare for the Year 2000.

The Prime Minister has assigned to an expanded Treasury Board responsibility for co-ordinating the federal government's Year 2000 activities on behalf of the Cabinet. He has charged four lead Ministers with the following special Year 2000 responsibilities:

The President of the Treasury Board has general responsibilities to co-ordinate the federal government's Year 2000 activities and specific responsibility to oversee the Year 2000 preparedness of federal departments and other organizations.

The Minister of Industry, in collaboration with colleagues and businesses, is responsible for seeing that reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the private sector can meet the challenges of the Year 2000.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is responsible for working with Canada's international partners to address Year 2000 problems that could adversely affect Canada, and to provide assistance internationally.

The Minister of National Defence is responsible for contingency planning and emergency preparedness.

In its response, the Government states its strong support for the theme of both the Standing Committee's report and the Task Force Year 2000 reports that the Y2K problem is everybody's problem; it is not a problem just for businesses or governments. All sectors of Canadian society and all governments will be affected, and the same will be true around the world. They all need to contribute to Y2K preparedness and solutions.

The response goes on to say that Canadians can take some encouragement from the fact that their efforts to date and those of businesses and governments have placed Canada in the leading ranks of countries in terms of Year 2000 preparedness. It adds, however, that a vast amount of work still needs to be done in the short period between now and 2000.