Smart meters really aren’t such a smart idea after all
Soon, Toronto will have to deal with so-called smart electricity meters. I say so-called because there’s nothing smart about spending perhaps $3 billion — billion with a ‘b’ — on them. And you might agree when you get your bill.
After the sticker shock of HST and bungled eco-fees, Premier Dalton McGuinty isn’t finished yet. It will cost more to make toast in the morning and more to cook dinner at night.
The refrigerator you can’t turn off will cost more to run. It will cost more for everything — and you’re going to pay for the privilege of, yes, paying. You can’t make this stuff up.
Smart meters charge different prices for electricity, depending on when it is used. In winter, peak prices hit around breakfast or dinner; in summer, in the middle of the day. It’s supposed to help you use less energy, but busy families can’t really avoid cooking before school and after work.
And seniors or new parents, home during the day, can’t really avoid cooling or heating. You simply can’t avoid paying more.
To help find out how much, I recently wrote to the auditor general, asking for a cost-benefit analysis because the government’s numbers just don’t add up.
Last year, I asked George Smitherman, the energy minister behind the program, what it would cost. He said around $1 billion.
But it turns out even that mammoth tag may be too low. In a newspaper, Hydro One’s director of communications confirmed that each meter cost $700.54 when you included all the costs. Already, 1.2 million have been installed which, using the government’s numbers, costs $852 million.
In all, four million meters are coming. Using their own cost estimate, that’s $2.8 billion. That’s almost three times higher than Smitherman’s original estimate. As I said, you can’t make this stuff up.
All of those costs will be put on your bill, along with the HST. It’s money that won’t be spent in Ontario stores to help the province recover economically. We’ll just have new meters to make us all pay more.
They are only just coming into effect in Toronto, and I’d appreciate your stories and experiences with them.
If you have something you’d like to share, or questions about the program, please let me know. You can reach me through my website at [url=http://www.petertabuns.ca]www.petertabuns.ca[/url], or if you prefer, by mail to Peter Tabuns MPP, 421 Donlands, East York, M4J 3S2.
Would you like to write a Community Column for the Town Crier’s website about your neighbourhood? If so, email Managing Editor Gordon Cameron [email=gcameron@mytowncrier.ca]here[/email].
Tabuns, are you kidding me!? You were the driving force behind all these insane so-called “Green” schemes. You fully supported the Liberals as they did everything under their power to gouge the ratepayer. You applauded every numbskull gimmick and experiment they put forward…to “save the planet”. You sat there during the Green Energy Act committee hearing and arrogantly sneered at and dismissed anyone who questioned the wisdom of some of these loony actions.
Now that you see the public is smart enough to see when they are being screwed and are rebelling, suddenly you distance yourself from all the nonsense. You really do disgust me.