To the Editor,
Great news for B.C. Hydro comes in from the Waterloo region in Ontario.
The Liberal government in B.C., using the Clean Energy Act, has forced B.C. Hydro to spend close to $1 billion on the smart meter program.
How is this program going to be paid for? Here is a solution.
Waterloo North Hydro, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro and Cambridge and North Dumfries Hydro have all applied to the Ontario Energy Board for permission to institute a new user fee or surcharge.
In these communities, a general service customer, with a monthly demand of less than 50 kilowatts would pay $8.47 each month for 30 months.
Should B.C. Hydro apply to the B.C. Utilities Commission a 36-month $8.47 surcharge, it could recoup $304.92 from each customer.
With 1.6 million customers, it would realize $487,872,000 or about half of the smart meter costs. Why not just ask for a $16.94 surcharge and get it over with?
The big problem here is that the B.C. Utilities Commission was circumvented by the Liberal government Clean Energy Act, so it may be difficult to convince the BCUC that a meter surcharge is a good idea.
Perhaps by asking for a $30 a month surcharge and then using the old trick of reducing it to the $16.94 really wanted, the utilities commission might acquiesce.
After all is said and done, the B.C. resident will still pay less than the residents in the free markets found in the U.S., Europe and beyond.
Ultimately, the end-user customer pays for everything, even the ‘mistakes’ of our B.C. Liberal government.
Too bad we have to lose our once-profitable Crown corporation to so many poor decisions made by our misled, misinformed politicians.
Alan MacKinnon
Nanaimo
