Chris Hadfield's $5 polymer note reveal highly scripted

Ground control to Cmdr. Hadfield. Commencing countdownis this thing on?

A planned event with orbiting astronaut Chris Hadfield last April to introduce Canada's space-age polymer bank notes had Finance Department officialscreating three highly scripted, colour-coded scenarios in anticipation ofpotential problems in Earth-to-space communications.

The scenarios, described by a finance official as"a hilarious number of speech contingencies in the event space doesnt co-operate," are outlined in documents obtainedby CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

The new $5 and $10 polymer bank notes were unveiled April 30during an event at Bank of Canada headquarters with Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank of Canada, Finance Minister Jim Flahertyand Via Rail chairman Paul G. Smith with a "phone call" from Hadfield aboard the International Space Station as the surprise centrepiece of the event.

The $5 note features images of the Canadarm2 and Dextre, Canadian robotic technologies that were used to build and maintain the space station, while the $10 bill featuresan iconic Via train, The Canadian, on its journey through the Canadian Rockies.

The "full live script" of the event was plannedaround a connection with Hadfield that went off mostly without a hitch, but included two other scenarios in case things didn't go as planned.

The preferred script includesa phone call to Carney that "interrupts" Flaherty at a key moment in the press conference and turns out to be Hadfield calling from space.

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The first scenario, meticulously plannedto the point it included a"stopwatch counting down time (1 minute) to 'ringing' of governors phone," played out almost exactly as planned until Flaherty finished his speech a little early.

After encouraging everyone to come back and visit the Bank of Canada Museum, Flaherty drops the veil a bit. "If you think Im biding time, I am, I have another 15 seconds or so we'll wait, we're going to see if this works and we're on time, so something is supposed to happen, we hope."

When Carney's phone finally rings, Flahertysays "Hallelujah" as a grinning Carney stands up to take the call.

That leads to one of the few unscripted moments, as Flaherty quipsto Carneywho wasin his final weeks on the job before becoming head of the Bank of England"Dont tell me it's London calling."

The 'blue' and 'green' scenarios

A second scenario, known as "the blue script" and drafted in case Hadfield's live feed from space was interrupted, had Flaherty reading from a script printed on blue stationery to introduce astronaut David Saint-Jacques, whowas in the audience attending the event.A bank staffer was sitting next to Saint-Jacques with a copy of Hadfield's text to cue himwhere to pick up Hadfield's remarks in the event of a lost connection.

The third or "green script" scenario was prepared in case a connection with the space station was impossible.In this case, Flaherty was to read from remarks printed on green stationery that was taped to the podium, to introduce a prerecorded videotape of Hadfield.

The scenario includes a draft of Hadfield's remarks that had been submitted to the Canadian Space Agency for approval and instructions to Carney to read remarks from the podium's "green script" to introduce Smith, theVia Rail chairman.

Officials seem to have been pleasedwith the work that went into planning the bank note announcement, with one Bank of Canada official saying, it was "a complicated setup but ended up working well in the end."

Or as one finance officialput it in an earlier email, "Should be a cool event.Wish I could go."