If Hydro is trying to kill me, it will have to get in line
“Dear Customer,” says the letter, which arrived just this week.
‘WE ARE EXCHANGING YOUR OLD METER WITH A NEW SMART METER.
“Every home and business in B.C. relies on electricity; however, we face the challenge of an aging electricity system…. Exchanging your old meter to a new smart meter will create the foundation for modernizing B.C.’s electricity system.”
Fiona Taylor and Cindy Verschoor from B.C. Hydro visited The Daily News this week.
In a few weeks, it says, installers from Hydro or Corix, the contractor, will be in my area to exchange my old meter with a new smart meter.
Some time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., a guy in a Hydro or Corix truck will arrive, knock on my door and ask to make the swap. If I’m not home, they’ll do it anyway.
Excellent. I say, welcome Hydro. Can I offer coffee and pie?
On this matter, I must disagree with those — including politicians — who worry that emissions from the new meter will make me glow in the dark.
There is so much bafflegab and fear-mongering on the matter of smart meters that it has become white noise.
If I worried about every dire consequence promoted by the harbingers of doom, I’d die from stress.
If Hydro is trying to kill me, it will have to get in line. There are so many things that are going to kill me, I figure it’s a race for what comes first, and I may as well enjoy the ride.
Vitamins, for example, are going to kill me one way or another. If I don’t take enough, I will die. If I take too many, I will die. Take your pick of studies that say one or the other.
I bought something last weekend that came in a plastic bag. Printed on the bag was a warning that “This is not a toy” and I should not put it on somebody’s head. Good advice.
After being told for years to look after the ol’ prostate, some researcher came out a couple of weeks ago and said don’t worry about it, something else will probably kill me first.
If that doesn’t cheer you up, how about the fact more people die from having coconuts dropped on their heads than from shark attacks. Seriously, I’ve done the research. Always look up.
Incidentally, every bear season, we hear of people being attacked and killed by bears, but more people are attacked by moose than bears. (I throw that tidbit in for free.)
Speaking of things that will kill you, it wasn’t that long ago that the Interior Health Authority suggested people had a better chance of being struck by lightning than they did dying from a dirty surgical instrument or a contaminated colonoscopy procedure at Royal Inland.
I found that very encouraging.
The old saying, “I could get run over by a bus” is more than an old saying. Hundreds of people are killed by buses (in China, where they are all crazy drivers, it’s thousands, and that doesn’t include the people killed IN buses).
You might break your neck falling down stairs, choke on a chicken wing, or get an aneurism sitting too long on an airplane. You could die from second-hand cigarette smoke.
And go easy in the sack — too much sex is a killer.
Just about anything in this world can kill you. So, Hydro, bring on the smart meter.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Relating to the smart meters, . B.C.Hydro , let your conscious be your guide. There have been too many complaints related to your so called “Smart Meter”, whether health, privacy, huge increase of billing and last but not least world scientists, engineers and the medical professions, who feel that these meters should be taken off the market. We need to think of our future generations. Why the hurry of laying out these contraptions, is there more to it???????? Why not improve up on the meters and put the users at ease.
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There are a few other things to consider:
The BC Utilities Commission was prevented from assessing the smart meter technology. Prior to the Clean Energy Act the BCUC was involved in the approval process for utility infrastructure development and upgrades. When we remove the BCUC from the equation, along with their quasi-judicial power, what are the people of BC left with? Who is there to represent our interests?
We are told that the smart meters will conserve power, but how? We are all going to still use the same amounts of power in our day to day activities. The difference is, now BC Hydro can charge us more for our peak time usage. With the current analog system, our total power consumption calculation is not fixed to a time period throughout the day. BC Hydro wants to introduce peak and non peak hours. The bottom line is, our Hydro bills could go up by 50%+. There are stats to support this in the U.S. with smart meter use.
What happens to the meter readers throughout BC? Are they now out of work?
I’ve heard of close to 400 people that could be out of work.
The original impetus for the smart meters that was circulating in the media headlines was that of electricity theft by grow ops – to the speculated tune of $100M/year.
Perhaps we should be toughening our laws on those that operate grow ops so they arent back on the street a few days after they’re arrested – or we should legalize it and take the criminal element out of the equation all together and collect some hefty tax revenue.
It is no secret that funding for infrastructure upgrades at lower levels of government is getting tight. This will no doubt continue for some time. Given this fact, there’s no coincidence that we will be seeing a provincial auditor general to oversee municipal spending. We are entering a slippery slope where private entities are now stepping into the public utility realm. First we start with Corix for the Hydro meters and Neptune for the water meters. Where does it end? In 5 or 10 years will municipalities have the money for infrastructure upgrades? Likely not. In 5 or 10 years if you’re still writing this blog, which I hope you are, we will be debating the pros and cons of private companies supplying our utilities. Utilities are public domain and should remain that way.
BC is a hot-bed for government contempt right now. The people of this province are tired of things being slipped in through the back door.
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