Between 100-150 Victorians came out Sunday to voice their opposition to the unilateraly imposed installation of so-called 'Smart Meters' by the publicly owned power utility, BC Hydro. The meters are a hot-button issue with health, privacy, and government accountability activists, and the evidence backing the objections of these disparate groups grows stronger by the day. That may be the reason Hydro is moving at break-neck speeds to have the, estimated, $750 million project. Irksome too, this program was slid in by the governing BC Liberal party with minimal public consultation, and excluded oversight by the BC Utilities Commission, whose function is to hold the Crown corporation to account.
With municipal elections looming, and a provincial poll predicated by law before next summer, this could be a paradigm-shifting issue for British Columbia.
Resistance to the so-called Smart Meter project foisted upon the citizens of British Columbia without the benefit of public input, and through a special disqualification of the B.C. Utilities Commission, the governmental body that would normally oversee such a broad project, is spreading. Activists have taken their objections to municipal bodies, asking that they ask the provincial government exercise the Precautionary Principle, and heed their local jurisdictional duty to protect the health of the polity.
BC Hydro's plan to spend at least $1 billion to replace our current electricity meters is making people angry and they are questioning why the rush, and why no debate.
People will be travelling from all over the area to demonstrate opposition to the Hydro plan at the Legislature, Wed. June1, at 12 noon.
At the same time, John Horgan, MLA, Energy Health Critic, and Sue Hammel, MLA, are presenting petitions with hundreds of signatures to the Legislative Assembly demanding a halt to the "Smartmetering and Infrastructure" program, before the session ends on Thursday June 2nd.
The purpose is to bring to the attention of government and the public the many deficiencies in the plan as presented. Organizers stress that these meters are not "green" as originally claimed, nor do they save any energy, or money for customers and the province, while in fact the reverse is true in that they waste energy - and our money - in order to function.
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