Smart Meters = Dumb Decision

If all the broken promises, Lord of the Farce and the Caledonia fiasco aren't enough reasons to boot the Ontario Liberals out in 2007, Sun Business Editor Linda Leatherdale provides us with yet another!

In Pull McGuinty's Plug, she warns of another Liberal boondoggle in the works that "will make Ottawa's gun registry or Ontario's property tax madness look like financial sanity."

The intent likely was to make it appear as if the McGuinty government is taking responsible action by encouraging homeowners to save power and supposedly also save money by running large appliances on the off-hours when the rates would be cheaper.

In reality things look different:

"The gun registry cost overruns will pale by comparison to what will happen with smart metering," warns hydro expert Dave Young, an engineer for Kinectrics (formerly the research arm of Ontario Hydro).

Young says the smart meters McGuinty wants to install are too expensive, won't do what they're designed to do and will cheat customers who adjust their behaviour, like getting up at 4 a.m. to do the laundry, turn on the dishwasher and cook meals.

McGuinty's hydro plan is so insane that the poor souls now forced to use smart meters in his pilot project are paying the highest electricity prices during waking hours.

Linda says that Conservative Leader John Tory found out that:

...the Liberals plan on forcing us to buy brand-new smart meters at a cost of up to $5 a month -- when a Chatham utility using technology can do it much cheaper, at $1.29, by retrofitting existing meters.

But rather than go the cheaper route, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan went to Europe on a smart meter hunt, where he blew taxpayers' money on $70 steaks and other expensive feasts as his team wined and dined in Rome, Copenhagen and Brussels.

She continues:

Tory also says the Liberals plan on setting up a new administrative nightmare, similar to the Municipal Property Assessment Corp., which will blow tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a government-run smart meter data collection centre.

Energy expert Young agrees: "The communications linkages and data warehouses we'll need for all this information flitting back and forth will sink this system in the end," Young said. "Or, if it doesn't sink it, it will dwarf the billion-dollar gun registry that was supposed to be $2 million. Ten billion wouldn't surprise me at all."

It appears that not only is the program itself inherently flawed, but that we will be paying dearly for it in increased taxes and hydro rates.


Obviously this government is spinning out of control, but my biggest worry is that many voters will be sucked in when McGuinty inevitably attempts to bribe the taxpayers with their own money just before the next election - and then proceeds to break the promises again.

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TUESDAY UPDATE: Please check out This Canada for the complete list (to date) of McShifty's broken promises. Recognized by the Toronto Sun. It will be a useful resource for the next election.

And even the Toronto Star is telling McGuinty to keep his promise to autistic children!!!