I would like to know the state of readiness of municipalities in Ontario.

-- Chris J. Parker (SirParker@msn.com), December 20, 1998

Answers

Working with a group of 12 people in mid-Toronto to establish a program of community preparedness in Toronto. Establishing a course covering first aid, fire fighting, communications, search, domestic safety, and other topics covering dealing with challenges of civic emergencies. First training session is in Buffalo, January 23 - free of charge. Costs are being covered by community minded individuals. If anybody out there has an interest in more information please e-mail me. Sidney Himmel, Toronto

-- Sidney Himmel (himmel@istar.ca), December 23, 1998.

Hi Chris,

Good question. One that people seem to be asking all over the place. Without a lot of luck. (I had to laugh - in that gallows humor kind of way - when I read the part of that speech by senator Robert Bennett in the forum here where he says something like, "The power companies? Oh. They'll be fine... IF the phone system stays up. And the phone system? It's going to be just fine too... IF the power stays on, and so on.") I don't know how it is in Ontario, specifically, but nobody seems to be having a whole lot of luck getting a grip on the big picture. It seems like those who are having somewhat better luck in that department are those who are checking things out in the city or town where they live where they can actually get somebody who's supposed to be accountable on the phone, or, if push comes to shove, trapped in an office where they can eventually get whoever it is to sort of fess up and admit they "just don't know."

I've got this friend who's always saying, "Well. I don't know much about what I really want out of life, but I sure know a lot about what I don't want." Applying that same principle to your question, this link will bring up Capers Jones' Municipal Contingency Planning Guide in a new window. If you scan through the timeline in it you'll see that it is a thorough, somewhat overwhelming and depressingly succinct summary of what all Ontario (and all other) municpalities ought to at least be thinking about, if not taking action on.

And if you choose Print from your browser's file menu or tool bar, you'll have one heck of an unsettling document you could photocopy and either mail to or drop off at the next city or town council meeting, or at some of those offices mentioned above...

-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), December 25, 1998.

Chris,

I'd also like to know where the municipalities in Ontario stand in their remediation progress and disruption contingency planning. You'd almost think the information was kept hidden under some type of 'official secrets act' but I think the true reality of the situation is that nobody knows including the people working on the systems.

As I understand it, remediation progress has been likened to peeling back layers of an onion, especially in complex systems. You get through one layer and there's another one deeper that needs to be examined and fixed. I suggest you read Cory Hamasaki's latest Y2K Weather Report found here in the Awareness section for a deeper understanding of the problem.

The people working on the municipal systems may not want to reveal where they're at in their progress just due to not knowing what will happen until the systems are thoroughly tested.

I can tell what I do know. The Ontario government has had almost 20% of their remediation staff jump ship. We can only hope it was for greed and not hopelessness.

Unconfirmed rumour has it that the City of Toronto has just lost their main remediation service provider due to 'unrealistic' contract completion demands. (Gosh, they actually expected to be done and tested by Year 2000?!)

The City of Mississauga had moved their systems onto an up-gradable LAN network eight years ago! In fact, Gary North gives them honourable mention as one of the ONLY municipalities in the world who might make it! Yet they weren't done up to last spring. Seven years and they weren't done? Makes you wonder where the other towns and cities are at on their projects.

If anyone gets any information, official or rumour, on Ontario municipality preparedness, please post it here. The public has a right to know.

-- Gary (njarc@ica.net), December 27, 1998.