Dear Editor:
Re: Pleased with smart meters, Letters to the editor, The Record, Dec. 30.
What nonsense imaginatively dreamed up. $100 million stolen from Hydro annually! Anyone with a little knowledge of arithmetic can see how wrong this is.
Any measurement that Hydro has done demonstrates only leakage. Where that happens could be found easily and probably is not fixable for this has been going on for the life of electric generation.
The new dumb meters are not necessary. Their only purpose is to raise rates for high usage times, and this is just ridiculous. How could anyone decide to not cook or heat the house when needed?
Hydro has already raised rates for usage over an arbitrary number of KWHs, which places a tax on those who heat with electricity instead of polluting with oil or gas or coal or wood.
Remember when we were told that we could be all electric with clean energy.
There is no gain with the new meters. A billion-dollar capital cost will never be covered by the pretend gains, for they don't exist.
A real gain could be made if government quit taking the millions in water usage tax out of Hydro's income.
Remember, we own it all.
Terry Smith, Garibaldi Highlands
