Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 01

January/February 2020 // Canadian Government Executive / 11 TECHNOLOGY the Auditor General’s team built a “we- are-all-in-this-together” operating model while preserving the independence of the Auditor General to evaluate our readi- ness. As I regularly reported on progress to Cabinet and deputy ministers, I was also a frequent guest of the Parliamentary Pub- lic Accounts Committee of the legislature to explain what I was up to. These meet- ings often raised the media profile of Y2K – and not always in a positive way. For ex- ample, a month before the Y2K turnover, media reported that BC was spending less per capita than any other province on its Y2K program. This occasioned some fancy fun-with-numbers calculations backed by some very real questions as to whether we erations as its New Zealand counterparts and the successful transition of that coun- try’s hydro system bode very well for the day ahead in BC. By 7:00 a.m., I was on the first of several province-wide radio shows that day and was able to report on both New Zealand and Australia’s apparently successful transitions. Building public confidence continued to be a key theme throughout the day, which meant partici- pating in some radio phone-in shows that veered towards apocalyptic visions of fall- ing elevators, interrupted water supplies, etc. As the day rolled into late afternoon, I was able to report on the success of one of the more effective Y2K executive account- ability tests. To demonstrate their con- fidence in their Y2K fix, British Airways commanded its executives to be aboard a flight during the transition. By late after- noon Pacific time, none of them had fallen from the sky. That’s accountability! Our Action 2000 team began to assemble in the bunker of the Provincial Emergen- cy Preparedness (PEP) centre in Victoria. I spent most of the early evening follow- ing the lead of PEP staff as they kicked the provincial response into gear and talking to local media representatives who visited the site. At 11:00 p.m. Pacific, a large swath of the eastern part of the province crossed over midnight Mountain Time and we were able to receive a thorough and posi- tive report from PEP staff in the region. As we closed in on midnight, I chose not to look at the clock but rather at a huge, lit- up Christmas tree in a car dealer’s lot that I could see out my window. As the clock turned to 2000, I don’t recall many “Happy New Year” cheers. Instead, we were all fixed on that Christmas tree which, hap- pily, stayed lit. Before leaving PEP headquarters, I de- cided to check the Y2K hotline that the federal government had established as part of the inter-jurisdictional informa- tion exchange on Y2K transitions around the world and across Canada. However, by the time I checked in – just over three hours after Central Canada’s transition to 2000 – all that was on the phone line was a pre-recorded national weather report. Upping Our Game I have many memories of the first post- Y2K days, but a few are particularly en- dearing. At work, the throbbing buzz of sawing behind me on the limb stopped, and I received a round of applause from Cabinet for our Y2K efforts. Reflecting on were spending enough, and if not, why not. One process that could have produced more benefit was inter-jurisdictional co- ordination. Federal and provincial minis- ters tasked the embryonic federal-provin- cial-territorial Public Sector CIO Council (formed in 1997) with cross-Canada coor- dination of the Y2K effort. However, as a young organization, it lacked the maturity to be more than an information exchange network. Given that everyone was tackling the same technical problem, it could have been much more. For example, it might have developed common public communi- cations materials or created a shared Y2K fix “factory” where professional resources could be funded and shared across bor- ders. The Y2K Moment On December 31, 1999, “Y2K Day” was ush- ered in with equal amounts of confidence and holding of breath. The worldwide web, while in its early days, was global and operational. British Columbia had the benefit of being one of the last places to reach the Year 2000. New Zealand was one of the first – 19 hours ahead of BC. The first thing I did when I awoke in the wee hours of that morning was to check New Zealand’s Y2K website, which, happily, was live – indicating at least some success. More importantly, we knew that BC Hydro had much of the same type of IT in its op- In retrospect, the biggest accountability gap in Y2K related to the computer systems companies that brought us Y2K in the first place!