How can a citizen not become cynical when we see our provincial government deny the very process that would ensure effective governance?
Bill Bennett’s directive to the utilities commission denies fairness for those amongst us who have misgivings about the smart meter program. We won’t know this program’s efficacy, its long term health effects, whether it will become an invasion of privacy and we certainly won’t know if there is any justification to BC Hydro’s claim of increased costs associated with opting out of the program. What is certain is that we taxpayers will foot the bill for this program without prudent analysis.
BC Hydro’s claims of additional costs appear fatuous. Everyone is currently paying for all the consequences of and the infrastructure for the old meters. If there are savings associated with smart meters, then our utility bills should decrease. This is our corporation after all.
BC Hydro further claims that the 60,000 or so holdouts to the program affects its analysis of electrical demands. Nonsense. Analysis of 95 per cent of the available data would have a miniscule variance from the analysis of all of it. No one should be forced to pay BC Hydro’s imaginary excessive fees for refusing smart meters until all concerns have been allayed.
One might have thought government would represent the people in this case, but what we see is that we are party to a corporation being granted the right to bully its clients by government.
Sam Cosco
Parksville