Canadian emergency system struggles with first test after 9-11

OTTAWA -- No power in crucial government offices. Conflicting, erroneous statements by top officials. Telephone information lines crashing.

It wasn't a promising performance for a national emergency system weathering its first major test since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

How bad was it? Aides to Prime Minister Jean Chretien wrote an initial statement by hand, using candlelight to see what they were doing, because his Ottawa office didn't have an emergency generator.

It didn't matter to Chretien because he was vacationing in Quebec, which didn't lose power. Unlike President Bush, who went on television to reassure the public, Chretien communicated through statements distributed by his office until making brief comments to reporters Saturday morning.

Chretien and Bush spoke by phone for 10 minutes Friday and announced a joint task force to examine what caused the blackout that affected 50 million people in both countries. It will also look at how to prevent another.

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal, who will lead the task force with U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, said Saturday he hopes to complete an initial report within a month.

The emergency preparedness system was created in February 2001 to help Canada prepare for disasters, whether a terrorist attack, natural disaster or blackout like the one Thursday. That raised questions about how much Canada has learned, and how it could have responded better.

"By the time this passes, we'll look back and think the response was inadequate," said Stephen Harper, leader of the opposition Canadian Alliance.

Among the problems, telephones for the emergency preparedness system, a focus of government attention after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks south of the border, didn't work.

Jo-Ann Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness, said phone lines for the news media to call for information went out. She said communications remained intact for vital officials in the operation, though Defense Minister John McCallum and others were unable to provide details or even accurate information through Thursday night.

McCallum, the minister responsible for Canadian civil defense and disaster response, provided ultimately incorrect explanations Thursday night about the cause of the blackout, contributing to finger-pointing between U.S. and Canadian officials.

Responding to claims by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki that the problem started in Canada, a Chretien spokesman and the military at first said a lightning strike at a New York power plant was responsible.

They later changed their story, with McCallum dropping jaws by blaming a fire at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant. He backed off that within minutes, changing it to an outage instead of a fire, and tried to avoid the matter entirely at Friday's news conference.

"The cause of the problem is not a question for today. Once the power is back on, then we'll have a detailed analysis," McCallum said.

He blamed the erroneous statements on the overall confusion, but said the information came from unspecified U.S. sources.

Chretien, in his first public comments on Saturday, praised Canadians for handling the crisis calmly and took an overall tolerant posture.

"You can't blame anyone," he said. "It happened."

By Saturday, the power was back on in most of Ontario, though officials warned it could take days for life to return to normal.

"It is not going to be an abundance of power on Monday morning," Ontario Premier Ernie Eves told a news conference.

The province had the capacity to supply 19,000 megawatts on Saturday, short of the 23,000 megawatts required for a normal business day in the summer, and the demand was 17,500 megawatts, Eves said.

The Independent Electricity Marketing Operator, which regulates Ontario's power, said the province imported more than 2,000 megawatts Saturday from neighboring Quebec and Manitoba provinces and from New York and Minnesota.

"New York was able to give us some additional support, and that gave us a little bit of extra margin," said Bruce Campbell, an IEMO vice president. "We were very, very close" to going over capacity.

In Toronto, it was unclear if subway service would be restored in time for the new work week starting Monday.

Flights resumed on regular schedules at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, diminishing the long lines that began with the blackout Thursday, said Peter Gregg, spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Police in Toronto and Ottawa, the capital, reported no unusual crime on Friday night due to the blackout.

Water advisories have been issued for 51 communities in southwestern Ontario due to water treatment and pumping facilities affected by the blackout, said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's commissioner of public health. People were urged to use bottled water or boil their tap water.