Dear Premier Clark,
I write with many concerns regarding the provincial governments plans to blanket the province with the so called Smart Meters. This project obviously was initiated awhile ago but is just now coming to the attention of the citizens who will be paying for it and who will be affected by it. I can’t help wondering about the timing, when many are getting into summer holiday mode. We in Saanich have run into an invisible wall as the committees that would be looking into this matter are on a well deserved summer break. We are not able to have our concerns brought forward to council until after the committees meet in September. I don’t think we have time to wait but this may be what B.C. Hydro and the government were hoping for. May I suggest that this would be an excellent opportunity for the new provincial Liberal government to take some leadership initiative and call a halt to this before any more time, money and energy are consumed. Let’s all take a summer breather until this project can be proven not to be detrimental in a number of ways.
The concerns range from health issues (3-5 percent of the population of the province), to privacy concerns, to fire safety concerns, to environmental concerns and last but not least to concerns regarding the lack of public oversight.
For every piece of data B.C. Hydro has to sing the praises of this project there are equally expert and opposite opinions. Perhaps we just don’t have enough data yet to proceed with a project this widespread. Whether either side has the “whole truth” is of relative unimportance at this time. I think the number of unanswered questions alone is enough reason to call for a moratorium on the project until concerns can be way laid.
The people of this province have a number of past experiences with large projects that in hind sight don’t seem so “smart”. Perhaps in hind sight it will seem like a wise move to have pulled the plug on this project before more tax payer money is spent and possibly wasted. If the ‘other’ Premier Clark had listened to some of the naysayers we wouldn’t have had the fast ferry fiasco. Perhaps one ferry built as a trial would have been a smart way to go. Then we would have seen that these ferries, though suitable for some areas, created too much wash for our coastal waterways to handle. There are states who have done just this with the Smart Meter program. They have set up a pilot project and after reviewing the results have chosen not to go ahead throughout the state. Perhaps someone in B.C. Hydro or within the B.C. government needs to ask why they came to that conclusion. What were their findings? Perhaps someone needs to look at some of the literature coming out of Europe and other states where Smart Meters have been found to be “not so Smart”!!!
I see no shame in admitting to your constituents that you would like to halt the project even though there may be some money lost due to contracts signed and supplies purchased. Better now than when there is more to lose. I would think the whole debacle over the lack of information shared with the people of the province over the HST issue would make a moratorium a wise move for this project at this point in time.
I hope you will look seriously at this matter and can’t help wondering why if we are such a “green province” that Hydro isn’t using this money to research alternative forms of energy instead of replacing meters that are functioning with meters that will add to the electromagnetic radiation that is already playing havoc with bees and insects and now to some people, with meters that will invade our right to privacy and with meters that may be a fire hazard when installed with older wiring systems. When all of these issues are addressed then is the time to proceed with the project and not before.
I appreciate your time and the ‘energy’ that you give to the people of this province and hope you will appreciate our concerns.
Sherry Ridout
Victoria, B.C.
