BC Hydro paid a visit to the Omineca Express last week, as I’m sure it did to many residents of Vanderhoof.
It was a Monday, the day I spend glued to the computer putting the paper to press.
So I’m sure you can imagine the annoyance felt when an unannounced visitor from BC Hydro turns up and tells us we need to switch all the computers off so he can install the new smart meter. Brilliant.
After turning off the power we were told that actually we didn’t need to switch it off at all because our electricity system is connected to the radio station and obviously they just can’t go off air for a random period of time in the middle of the day. Fantastic.
For much of the rest of the week I kept hearing the phrase “smart meters” coming up in an awful lot of conversations. Notably I overheard a number of our customers complaining about BC Hydro turning up on their property without letting them know in advance, some spoke of refusing to let them on the property at all.
Towards the end of the week I received a round-robin email from a Vanderhoof resident announcing “we are ready for battle” and sharing website links with signs and flyers about the negative aspects of smart meters.
It seems to me that one of the key problems that people have with the smart meter is they fear that having one installed in the home will have health implications and that the information they collect will overstep privacy laws.
Either way it seems there is a lot of misinformation circulating over the meters and that needs solid factual clarification to either put peoples mind at rest or allow residents to opt out of having these meters if they wish.
