Dear editor,
Regarding your article, "Smart Meters come to Comox Valley," I feel I really must comment.
I do not think that Mr. Stanfield has any idea how many of the BC Hydro customers are feeling about these meters and this wonderful Wi-Fi that is beginning to take over our planet.
My husband and I live in a condo. The electrical room with 24 meters in it is directly under our living room and bedroom floors.
My husband has an electrical problem with his heart--he was all but dead from it three years ago. I have already lost a breast to cancer, as has my next door neighbour.
We do not want all of those meters and radiation so close to our living space. Let's just assume that these meters do cause my husband and I health problems.
Who is going to help us financially, cope, deal with the consequences? Will BC Hydro? Will the provincial government?
Many of the people who have refused these meters have had them forced upon them anyway, either by having their signs and locks removed when they aren't at home to protect the analog meter or by being bullied into allowing the installation to take place, regardless of their wishes. Is it always the homeowner who is being aggressive?
Having personally stopped the Corix and Hydro installers, it is a very unpleasant and unnerving experience for the home owner. You feel very threatened.
As far as the higher bills are concerned, first they tried to tell people that we'd had a colder than normal winter or that they'd had more company than usual. Now they are saying that that the bill may cover a longer period of time.
Two, three, even 10 times what your usual bill was? What will be their next excuse?
As for privacy, are they now trying to tell us that their own meter readers are crooks and that we have been fools to have trusted them on our properties all of these decades? Do they think we are so stupid that we don't know that these kinds of devices are very hackable and that the real threat is from a terrorist attack on the grid?
Taking everything into consideration, including the way these meters have been shoved down our throats, is it any wonder that many of us are protesting this program which has proven itself to be unsuccessful in other jurisdictions, costing the ratepayers more and saving little or no electricity?
Your article was very one-sided. Now you have a little of the other side of the story.
Shirley Robinson,
Victoria
Editor's note: In fairness to reporter Scott Stanfield, there was another, separate story on our website at the same time that outlined the concerns of smart meters critics.