Further Adventures in the Land of FOI
Ron Bolin: Feb. 12, 2014
Apropos the incinerator waffle and the conduct of RDN staff in carrying out their duties to their respective elected officials, I offer the following earlier case which I encountered with the City of Nanaimo under similar circumstances.
Back in 2011, before we had “smartmeters”, i.e. active radiation devices, forced on us in lieu of extortionate fees, Fred Pattje brought to Council a motion to inform BC Hydro that the City of Nanaimo requested a moratorium on this action pending further study. The motion passed 8-1. In 2013 I called Councillor Pattje to request a copy of the letter sent by Staff as a result. He informed me that he had never seen the document which had been sent and didn’t have a copy of it.
I next contacted our Legislative Services Manager at the time to request a copy. This elicited the following email exchange which demanded an official FOI request which was duly submitted. This exchange, as is the way with email protocol, needs to be read from the earliest message at the bottom through subsequent exchanges toward the top:
After some time the following information was received from the City:
It is of interest to examine the peculiarities associated with the materials which were finally released to me relative to the timing and outcomes associated with my FOI request from the Regional District of Nanaimo which I presented in a previous post.
What first struck me is the fact that the Letter to BC Hydro, rather than being sent by the Manager of Legislative Services, was sent by the Mayor. His participation at this level in the day to day administration of the City, I find odd.
What struck me next was the absence of a date on the letter. We have highly qualified secretarial staff to prepare and send letters of behalf of the City. How was the date forgotten?
And lastly it seems very odd, for the same reason of secretarial oversight on behalf of BC Hydro, that the only reference in the body of the text to Nanaimo should be in the last paragraph of the front page of the letter which the City forwarded to me that: “We understand that some residents in the District of Central Saanich (emphasis mine) have concerns related to the Smart Metering Program.” Central Saanich??
Now these peculiarities do not prove malfeasance, but they do raise questions about the manner in which important matters of City business which express the wishes of Council as defined by motions passed in public by that body are handled. The similarities in the apparent laxity in dealing with important issues of public policy at the RDN is hard to overlook. Are the wishes expressed by our elected officials in a public forum inappropriately handled by the staff which are employed to serve them (and us). Can we trust what we see at Council? Are there other such circumstances of which we are not aware?
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
More than 75 people turned out for Nanaimo’s rally against smart meters yesterday (June 14, 2014), on the sidewalk in front of MLA Leonard Krog’s office downtown. The event was part of a multi-city Day of Action Against Smart Meters occurring across British Columbia and Quebec. The battle over this atrocity continues.
This coming Saturday, June 14, 2014, there will be a Rally : SMART METERS = DEMOCRACY DENIED at MLA Leonard Krog’s Office, 4-77 Victoria Crescent.
A Late Invitation:
If you are unaware of the dangers to democracy of the extortionate implementation of “Smart Meters” by way of lack of due diligence in Public Consultation, Honesty in Public Dealing, Public Health and Safety, Your Privacy and Your Pocketbook, attend this Rally! If you are aware of these dangers attend this Rally to ensure that others become aware as well.
BC Hydro has demanded that an active radio transmitter and receiver be place in or on your property and/or home even though they had the opportunity to place these on their own property which brings their service to your home. If you did or do not allow this invasion of your property an additional fee of up to $35 per month is taken from you to keep their monopoly electric service in your home. This charge is for a meter reading service which is not accompanied by any description of the service, the date on which the service took place, or the Hydro personnel who performed that service. How does this differ from common extortion which promises that your home will not be invaded if you just pay a monthly fee to the extortionist? But it is worse. In this case, if you do not pay the extra monthly fee and accept their transmitter/receiver you have opened your home to the examination of what is going on electrically within it at any and all times by the utility –or anyone else who may have the equipment to read the signals that their device on your home is constantly transmitting.
For an overview of this egregious takeover see http://www.takebackyourpower.net. You can also check out the award winning documentary: “Take Back Your Power” at any branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library.
Organizations involved in the struggle the retrieve our power include:
http://www.citizensforsafetechnology.org
http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca
Have you noticed any increases in health or attention related problems recently? Just as some are more affected by tobacco smoke, asbestos, lead or other now diagnosed but previously ignored problems, maybe you are electro-sensitive. Think about it. Check it out. Find out more about electronic warfare.
Check the attached information sheets.
Hope to see you at the Rally.
_______________________________
If you didn’t make it, you can read more about it and see some photos at:
http://www.electroplague.com
BC Hydro does not own property, they have been given easements by landowners including the City which owns the roads and where the distribution system is generally located.
People who reject the upgrade to smart meters will have to bear the cost of meter readers if they want to purchase power from BC Hydro. It’s not extortion. It’s the deal if you want power from BC Hydro.
BC Hydro is not a monopoly. You can generate your own power in many different ways, or you can collect it from the sun, you can even store it in numerous ways, but one thing you can’t do is produce it as cheaply as BC Hydro can and there in lies the rub.
Meter reading is not a service either; it is the way in which BC Hydro determines how much electricity you have used. Yes, when smart meters are installed they can measure the electrical load remotely and in real time. So what? They can not tell how you are using electricity only when you are using it and how much you are using. They can do this with a smart meter on your house, or on the pole in the road.
The reason the smart reader is not located on the pole is because that would be a very expensive installation, and it would defeat the purpose of modernization which is to reduce environmental impacts and promote the conservation of energy.
I imagine that you could have a smart reader installed on a pole in the road instead of on the house if you are willing to pay for the installation. Would that solve the objections?