To the Editor,
Re: Dumb leaders attack smart meters, B.C. Views, Oct. 6.
Tom Fletcher’s article shows us how a party’s line can be swallowed along with the sinker and the hook.
If Fletcher had followed the principles of good news reporting he might have asked the all important question: “why?”
Why did it take an act of legislation by the B.C. Liberal government (the Clean Energy Act) to force B.C. Hydro to initiate the smart meter program?
Our Crown corporation would not be able to financially justify its engagement with the smart meter program were it not for the political directive forcing them to disregard the interests of shareholders (the people of B.C.) and embrace a fiscally irresponsible program.
The act also ensures the smart meter program cannot be reviewed by the B.C. Utilities Commission, which would insist on due diligence before implementation.
The spending of close to $1 billion on the new meters all at once, instead of bringing them in slowly over an extended period of time, has more than doubled the cost.
The major benefit touted by the pundits is that hydro will be better able to identify and improve their infrastructure problems. Imagine if that billion dollars was spent on the upgrades B.C. Hydro’s competent engineers already know about.
The due diligence that B.C. Hydro would have needed to do before accepting the smart meter program was bypassed, and we can be sure that the legislators who implemented it did not know or understand what they were doing.
So it was the politicians who are to blame for the costs of imposing this dangerous, unreliable and vulnerable technology on us and we are the ones who will pay in the end.
With the politicians meddling in hydro’s business for who knows who’s reasons, I am reminded of a similar major faux pas the politicians made. That would be the ‘fast ferries’.
Alan MacKinnon
Nanaimo