Mr. Speaker, I warn the Liberals that Canadians do not accept the government's failure to guarantee that the computers of federal departments will work properly and not crash in the year 2000.
The Canadian public will suffer when programs and services are seriously disrupted.
Most computers use two digits to represent the year and do not recognize 00 as the year 2000. The Liberals have not properly budgeted for billions of dollars to fix this problem. Only one-third of federal departments have a strategy for dealing with the crisis.
The Liberals should prepare and table in parliament a contingency plan to address possible failure. The Liberals have not addressed the long term legal implications of failure. The slow and haphazard planning of the Liberals is interfering with the year 2000 compliance.
The auditor general has already lambasted the Liberals for their tardiness. Canadians are watching the Liberals fudge the year 2000 project.