To the Editor
Re: Smart meters failed in other jurisdictions, Letters, Jan. 12.
I just received my B.C. Hydro bill for a two-month period and my jaw dropped. The bill was more than $430.
My residence is less than 1,000 square feet and is heated primarily with two portable oil-filled heaters, one at each end of the home. The electric furnace rarely comes on.
The bathing and washing is for one person; lighting is dimmed and the hot water tank is new.
What is going on here? Never in my lifetime, even when living in a much larger home and heated by electric baseboards alone, have I ever encountered a heating bill this high.
Comparing it to my last year’s billing, which should have been higher because of visitors which I had during the same time period, I am being billed about $100 more this year.
Yes, they installed a smart meter between my last billing (about $200) and this billing. And yes, almost $50 was for the B.C. Liberals’ ‘rejected’ HST.
This is a bad joke being played on the residents of a province so rich in energy that it can afford to send billions of dollars of electricity and natural gas to Washington state alone, while doubling energy bills to its own residents and taxpayers.
We need some major revisions in our provincial government. And after that some major revisions to B.C. Hydro governance and policies.
K. Jackson
Nanaimo