Don’t want to have a smart meter? It could cost you!
Posted September 13, 2013 10:14 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Smart meter opponents vow the fight’s not over, as we start to get a sense of the cost of refusing BC Hydro‘s technology.
The Crown corporation is sending letters that outline the fees you might have to pay.
If you still don’t have a smart meter and want to keep it that way, BC Hydro wants to charge you $35 a month. If you’re okay with installing the smart meter but want the transmitter kept off, it would be a one-time $100 fee, plus another $20 a month.
Sharon Noble of the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters objects to the fees.
“They are putting the fees so high, that they believe it will scare people and force people who can’t afford to pay these extremely high fees to take a smart meter. That is the definition of extortion,” she says.
BC Hydro still needs approval from the BC Utilities Commission, and Noble says her group will fight it.
“They are going to force these people who cannot afford to pay these huge fees to accept something they believe is going to be harmful to them. I think that’s unconscionable, quite frankly.”
BC Hydro intends to start charging people in December if they don’t want the smart meter.
