Mr. Speaker, the message is clear. The Liberal government has only scratched the surface of the Y2K problem. There is a lot of work to be done with only 460 working days left. Next to World War II the Y2K problem could be the second largest disaster in the history of the world.
The potential risks of the Y2K problem to Canada include the loss of 200,000 jobs, a technology solution estimated at $12 billion to $50 billion, legal costs that could be five times the technical costs, and one in ten Canadian businesses could fail.
The government originally stated that it would cost $500 million to fix this problem. Now the estimates are rising daily. In some instances the final numbers on costs are coming in at five times the original estimates.
We must have someone in the government who is accountable and responsible to get this problem fixed and lead us into the next millennium.
To quote from an expert “there has never been a manmade technical problem that will impact so many businesses, so many government groups and cause so many problems at a personal level”. The clock is ticking.