moved for leave to introduce Bill C-495, an act to establish a national standard for the representation of dates in all-numeric form.
This is a simple, sensible bill to avoid confusion of dates in the computer age. Its purpose is to promote the use of a national standard for all numeric dates. It proposes the use of the date form developed by the International Organization for Standardization; that is to say year, month, day, going from the general to the specific, so that today the date is 2000 09 21.
A standard approach to dates will avoid the confusion that commonly arises today from the use of different conventions, especially in computer-generated material.
I thank Duncan Bath of Peterborough and others who have worked on this important matter for many years. I urge all members of the House to support this progressive legislation. I urge government departments to take note of it immediately.