Y2K fears fizzled but preparations were still key

By JEREMY APPEL on January 2, 2020.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel

Two decades ago today, the world was just getting over Y2K fears of a technological collapse.

The fear was that since many computer clocks were programmed with just two digits representing the year, they wouldn’t be able to make sense of a change from 99 to 00, leading to mass disruptions to our technologically-dependent way of life.

Of course, that ended up not being the case.

Hatter Andy Strange, who worked on Y2K preparations for Defence Research and Development Canada at CFB Suffield, told the News that planning to avert any difficulties began as early as 1998.

The auditor general had ordered the chief of defence staff to set up Y2K monitoring groups to provide an independent assessment of preparedness for “critical systems within the department of national defence.”

“We reviewed the aircraft, the infrastructure, medical systems, weapons systems, communications systems – everything,” said Strange.

Due to these precautions, Strange says his team was confident there wouldn’t be any major Y2K-related issues.

“We were aware of any potential problems, so it was more of an assurance,” he said. “If we couldn’t fix it, we knew what to expect.”

Since nothing major went wrong, it’s easy to dismiss Y2K concerns as simple hysteria, but these precautionary measures were necessary, said Strange.

“Being aware of what the potential was gave us the opportunity to mitigate the potential. You didn’t want to get surprised,” he said.

“It was a matter of looking at the possibilities and probabilities. Yes, there was a lot of hype about it, but at the same time we took the right steps in finding out what the problems were beforehand.”

Once they identified these issues, they were able to provide solutions to avoid a worst-case scenario.

For instance, they determined that Ottawa’s Telesat satellite phone system, which provided communications for national defence, had to turn off some phones overnight, but others had to remain on to allow them to communicate effectively, Strange said.

There were also concerns with what might occur with the banking system once the year changed to 2000, but Strange’s work was solely focused on the government side of the equation, specifically on the Royal Canadian Air Force’s preparedness.

“We were given way stricter guidelines (for the review) than what the department had used,” he said.

He suspects some precautions were perhaps excessive, but the purpose of his team’s work was to ensure everything went according plan.

“At the end of the day, we were confident that we were ready for all of the potential problems. There were a few identified, but every one of them had a solution,” said Strange.

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