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Ministry of Energy and Mines<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Dear Ms. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
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The BC Utilities Commission Act states that all customers are to be treated fairly and equitably. That all customers should be billed the same rate for the same service.<\/p>\n
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The Commission has been banned from getting involved with any aspect of the smart meter program EXCEPT FOR RATES. (section 18.2 Clean Energy Act). \u00a0In Directive 4, Mr. Bennett ordered you to set rates for those with legacy meters based on costs for additional work\/services required.\u00a0 The assumption was clear that all smart meters were being read remotely. Hydro asked and BCUC granted the highest \u201clegacy\u201d fee in North America<\/strong><\/span>, $32.40 per month for 6 annual readings<\/strong><\/span>, or in the case for those on an equal payment plan, 1-2 readings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
As admitted by BC Hydro, as of January, 2014, close to 70,000 smart meters were being read manually, and as of September, close to 50,000 were. Because of design problems, ITRON has admitted that its wireless meters cannot function well in dense urban environments because its signals cannot penetrate concrete walls like those in many condos and apartment buildings. Neither can they send signals in some areas where topography prevents access to cell towers. Therefore, for some time many smart meters will continue to be read manually, and no additional fees<\/strong> are being charged for this service.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In the letter below, in response to a request for an explanation for this discrepancy by someone \u00a0whose neighbour has a manually-read smart meter, \u00a0Mr. MacLaren admits that legacy fees are charged because he did not accept a smart meter \u2013 not because of additional costs being incurred.<\/p>\n
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This admission confirms what we have been charging, that the fees that we are being forced to pay are punitive and cannot be justified according to the UCA.<\/p>\n
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Ms. Hamilton, the BCUC has the responsibility to safeguard the public, not just the government or BC Hydro. If the BCUC believes that it has no authority at all, or that it can be\/has been stripped of all authority over every aspect of the smart meter program, including rates, I would like to be told. \u00a0I ask you to consider this charge I am making \u2013 that the fees are punitive and unjustified \u2013 and demand that BC Hydro stop demanding this payment and return all fees collected.<\/p>\n
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Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Sharon Noble<\/p>\n
Victoria, BC<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bennett’s office admits legacy fees are because we won’t accept smeter — they are punishment!! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!\u00a0An admission by Bill Bennett\u2019s office that the legacy fees are punishment\u00a0and not due to additional services being given those with legacy meters and no one else.\u00a0\u00a0Please see letter below. This is so very significant and I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,58,257,17,142,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-bc","category-bchydro","category-bill-bennett","category-bc","category-opt-out-options","category-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401","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=6401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6405,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401\/revisions\/6405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}