A letter-writer suggests that the “smart meters” B.C. Hydro is installing in homes are both unsafe and insecure, as a result of the wireless technology the meters employ.

Photograph by: Bill Keay, Postmedia News, Times Colonist

B.C. Hydro’s ad promoting the “smart meters” it plans to install in July claimed they will keep rates lower.

When the same meters were installed in California, the rates there increased.

In Ontario, they went up as much as 150 per cent.

B.C. Hydro also claimed the new meters would keep our information secure. Really? These meters will be communicating between homes and base stations by wireless technology. And wireless is notoriously easy to hack into.

In the U.S., personal data harvested by the microwave chip in the meters is called proprietary information by some utility companies and is being sold to marketing firms.

B.C. Hydro didn’t claim that the meter is safe. And that’s a point in its favour, because it isn’t. There have been reports of fires started by these meters and illnesses because the meters emit electromagnetic radiation. The consequences of introducing these meters have been so dire that a number of communities in the U.S. and Canada have tried to opt out of the program, with mixed results.

The B.C. Hydro smart meter program is a billion-dollar boondoggle that is going to make a few insiders rich and leave the rest of us wondering who was responsible for doing the due diligence.

Dennis Noble

Colwood BC