Quebec believes it has flattened Y2K bug

QUEBEC CITY, May 27 (Reuters) - The Quebec government believes that at a cost of C$475 million it has virtually eradicated concerns about the millennium bug.

"We will be on time to update ourselves to the year 2000," Quebec Treasury Board president Jacques Leonard told Reuters.

Leonard said work on the project started in 1996 and should be completed by next month.

Five companies have tested the computer networks of the Canadian province and results showed that 97 percent of the work has been done, Leonard said.

"On all essential public services, the problem is tackled at 96.9 percent and strategic information systems have been checked at 93 percent," the minister said.

He said 90 percent of all health equipment at hospitals were also tested.

He said Hydro-Quebec had also almost finished its Y2K test, hitting a 99.4 percent compliance rate in late April, up from 98.6 percent in February. The public pension fund manager Caisse de depot et de placement du Quebec rose to a 84 percent rate from 73 percent two months earlier.

"We are doing everything we can to make sure we have no problem at the end of the year. Obviously, we are still in the unknown and we will never be sure at 100 percent," he said at his Quebec City office.

Leonard said public security officials and provincial police will be put on alert on New Year's Eve to deal with any urgent situations.

Just passin' it on. . .

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 29, 1999

Answers

* * * 19990529 Saturday

... Can't be true... It's not en Francais... *wink* ...

Regards, Bob Mangus

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-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@hotmail.com), May 29, 1999.