[interdoc-y2k 312] Will we be "READY-2000"?

[Terry Cottam <di238@freenet.carleton.ca>]

On 30 March 1999, the Region of Ottawa-Carleton (ROC) held a press
conference launching "READY-2000," a joint taskforce of area
municipalities to, among other things, "answer questions" by local
residents about the year 2000.

The Ottawa Citizen reported on this event the next day, and added the
position of our citizens' watchdog group, the Y2K Regional
Preparedness Group, that there were a lot of "if's" attached to
READY-2000's claims of "little or no disruptions." In response to our
question at the event, Doug Brousseau, Director of Emergency Measures
at ROC, acknowledged that citizens should prepare for up to one week
of disruptions as a prudent measure.

The following excerpt from an article on the highly-regarded
Westergaard 2000 website puts the above events in larger context:

At 04:10 PM 99/03/26 -0400, Richard Day wrote:
>>From the Miami planning Office.
>
>http://y2ktimebomb.com/GL/CL/gl9912.htm
>
>Y2K More Than a "Storm" 
>                                                                    
>                         By Chuck Lanza
>March 26, 1999 
>                                                                    
>
>Has there been a decrease in interest in Y2K from the media and
>the public during the last week? Has the change in the message
>from Y2K being a significant threat, to Y2K being "a blip on the
>radar screen" affected the rush to preparedness nationwide? Has
>the preparedness message been subjugated to the level of
>interesting but not necessary? Has irreparable damage been
>done to our ability to mobilize and prepare the community? My
>answer to all four questions is yes. 


I agree. A local resident who I won't identify just wrote me: 

"...I have found my interest in Y2K has been superceded by other, more
immediate and important personal concerns.  Also, I find myself not
very worried any more that there will be significant problems because
of various pieces of information including Peter de Jaeger reporting
he is quite confident of a fairly smooth transition.  Email and
internet reading fatigue may also be a factor..."


I understand completely. I think this highlights three hurdles to
preparedness:

1. Taking care of ourselves and getting prepared
2. Taking care of others and keeping them properly informed
3. Holding authorities accountable. 

I too am now paying more attention to #1, and will prioritize my y2k
activities accordingly, pausing every so often to recharge my
batteries, smell the roses, all that good stuff :-)

On #2, our Y2K Centretown Pilot Project is set to begin in April, just
when the Region's y2k forums get under way. More on that later. We
also have our Food Forum 2000 (it's free) coming up on April the 10-11
at Ottawa U., Rm. 122 Lamoureux Hall, with a showing of the Resilient
Communities teleconference on Friday the 9th (see http://y2k.inode.org
for details).

On #3, we are asking everyone to question the intentions of
authorities until they either give us verifiable answers, or admit
they don't know. On our part, I asked Peter de Jager's employee Bill
Syrros here in Ottawa, if he agreed that "yes, serious problems MAY be
avoided, ONLY in industrialized countries, and ONLY if we keep up the
pace of remediation, contingency planning and community preparedness."
He agreed, arguing only a few minor points, and noting that he did not
speak for Peter. Clearly, there is the potential for common ground,
but it's up to we citizens to persist in our questions until
authorities, from y2k "gurus" like Peter right down to our own local
governments, publicly concur with this.

In the meantime, it is our position that Peter's claim "we've finally
broken the back of the y2k problem" is, at best, grossly premature. We
have posted our full statement on this on the "Peter de Jager" page of
our website, http://y2k.inode.org. We also have added a link to the
above article.

In the meantime, we heed the warning from this same article: "I
believe we have wasted a good portion of 1999 waiting for leadership
while failing to engage the public." Accordingly, we are gearing up
along with our local governments for major public outreach, just as a
series of potential y2k disruptions beings on April 1st.

Best wishes for a prepared 1999,

Terry Cottam, President, y2k Regional Preparedness Group
* y2k-ottawa@inode.org, (613) 236-6433, y2k Centretown Contact
* Ottawa-Carleton Community Preparedness website: http://y2k.inode.org
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