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Meter charge gross injustice

An open letter to the Honourable Bill Bennett, Minister of Energy and Mines.

I read with great concern an item in the Grand Forks Gazette (Wed. October 9, 2013), about your cabinet order to the BC Utilities Commission to make sure they approve fees high enough to cover costs of customers opting out of BC Hydro’s smart meter program.

This is a frightening order. Are you fully aware of the possible consequences of these new meters, adding even more invasion of electro-magnetic frequencies (EMFs) to your immediate environment? Are you aware of the health risks that may occur? We are already being bombarded by EMFs from satellites, radio towers, and the new technologies of wireless internet, cell phones and more. We do not know the risks and how they will play out in the next 20 years.

There are already noticeable changes in people’s memories, as both young and old find themselves losing words, unable to complete sentences. It’s not Alzheimer’s disease, it’s the disease of new technology, interfering with our own natural electrical and magnetic energies within our bodies. And never mind the consequences of these EMFs on the residents of metal trailers and mobile homes that are like conductors for energy.

And now you insist those who wish to maintain their health must pay BC Hydro when they opt out of the new meters. You insist they pay for a gross financial error made by the corporation in purchasing the meters in the first place without due research. This is tantamount to tyranny, forcing the public to pay for another’s mistakes.

In addition, you state you can turn the ‘radio off’. Sir, this is not a radio signal—this is an invasive EMF. I therefore suggest you reconsider this situation and think of human need and health before thinking of corporate pocket books and penalties.

As a suggestion, we here in the Boundary are serviced by FortisBC which also provides our natural gas. A meter reader, for that is what the penalty is for, to pay a meter reader, can cover both electric and gas meter readings at the same time.

Does it really cost each resident $35 for the five minutes it takes to read a meter? This is gross injustice.

Rosemary Phillips,

Christina lake