{"id":14234,"date":"2018-09-15T01:16:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T08:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14234"},"modified":"2018-09-15T01:16:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T08:16:36","slug":"port-hardy-resident-furious-over-smart-meter-installation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14234","title":{"rendered":"Port Hardy resident furious over smart meter installation"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<p class=\"lead\">\u201cThey came into my house without consent and it wasn\u2019t even a BC Hydro employee.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"author-meta\">\n<li><a class=\"byline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.northislandgazette.com\/author\/tyson-whitney\/\" rel=\"author\">TYSON WHITNEY<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Sep. 14, 2018 11:55 a.m.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>Al Dodd is livid that BC Hydro went on his property without permission and installed a smart meter against his wishes.<\/p>\n<p>Dodd, who lives on Daphne Street in Port Hardy and has been firmly against having a smart meter placed in his house for years now, stated he was away on vacation in Panama when a company contracted by BC Hydro entered his garage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI received no notification and it was not with my consent that they entered my house,\u201d said Dodd, who added he had three signs posted, one on the door and two inside his garage, that said not to install a smart meter.<\/p>\n<p>He added he did not see this coming, as \u201cA long time ago I talked to them (BC Hydro) on the phone and they said as long as you pay your legacy meter fees (they wouldn\u2019t put in a smart meter).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His neighbour snapped photos of the contracted company going into his garage on Sept. 5, because his neighbour felt it was \u201ckind of fishy \u2014 I\u2019m thinking maybe they knew I was away, but I have no answers to that,\u201d added Dodd.<\/p>\n<p>He noted the smart meter is located directly under his bedroom, and he stated he thinks they are dangerous because they can potentially start fires. \u201cI come from a firefighter family and no smoke detector in the garage is going to wake me up,\u201d he said, adding he will be contacting the Port Hardy RCMP, his lawyer, and a friend of his who is a former Telus employee that is an advocate against smart meters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had no right to do this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve paid my fees, I\u2019ve paid my dues, and it\u2019s not only a safety concern \u2014 they came into my house without consent and it wasn\u2019t even a BC Hydro employee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked if he thinks his hydro bill will change now that he has a smart meter installed, Dodd replied, \u201cI know it will,\u201d stating he feels his bill is most likely going to triple now.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to comment, Ted Olynyk, Manager for Community Relations Vancouver Island for BC Hydro, stated the company changes legacy meters out regularly, and all meters are regulated by Measurement Canada to ensure accuracy for the consumer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have about 10,000 meters across the province that will need to be exchanged,\u201d said Olynyk. \u201cNew meters will be put in place because we do not use legacy meters anymore. Customers do have the option when we install the new meter to have the radio off so it won\u2019t communicate like a smart meter does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for whether they are allowed to go on customer\u2019s property without their consent, Olynyk said that \u201cAs part of the agreement with our customers, we require access to the meter. We have to read it and we have to take the old meters out, because if we don\u2019t then we would be in violation of Measurement Canada and we would face a fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He noted fines from Measurement Canada are typically in the thousands of dollars, and that if customers want power, \u201cyou need a meter with the new equipment we are using, which you do have the option to have the radio off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Olynyk also said there is no truth to smart meters starting fires. \u201cWe\u2019ve actually found it\u2019s an improvement for safety \u2014 there have been less fires after changing out the old meters because we are able to go in and clean up things like faulty wiring from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"gallery\"><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-full \" src=\"https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3-180x300.jpg 180w, https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3-614x1024.jpg 614w, https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3-640x1067.jpg 640w, https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3-1024x1707.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/9eh9936trw4spd6t1fgmsxwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/13553163_web1_180919-NIG-BCHydro_3-180x300@2x.jpg 360w\" alt=\"\" width=\"779\" height=\"1298\" \/><\/a>SUBMITTED PHOTO One of the three signs Al Dodd said he had hanging up in his house that stated he did not wish to have a smart meter installed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northislandgazette.com\/news\/port-hardy-resident-furious-over-smart-meter-installation\/?fb_action_ids=10155843966971623&amp;fb_action_types=og.comments\">https:\/\/www.northislandgazette.com\/news\/port-hardy-resident-furious-over-smart-meter-installation\/?fb_action_ids=10155843966971623<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThey came into my house without consent and it wasn\u2019t even a BC Hydro employee.\u201d TYSON WHITNEY\u00a0\u00a0Sep. 14, 2018 11:55 a.m. Al Dodd is livid that BC Hydro went on his property without permission and installed a smart meter against his wishes. Dodd, who lives on Daphne Street in Port Hardy and has been firmly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,219,17,103,128,650,194,91,230,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bchydro","category-break-in","category-bc","category-canada","category-corix","category-port-hardy","category-removal","category-removed","category-replacement","category-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14235,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234\/revisions\/14235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}