If your privacy is only worth 65 cents, what are Canadians likely to do in response to Hydro-Québec’s proposal to charge $302 the first year and $204 each year thereafter to opt-out of using a smart meter?
How much do meter readers up there earn, anyway?
And why can’t they use a simple system like we used to have here: homeowners circle numbers on a card and mail it in to report usage, and the utility only sends out a reader once or twice a year to verify? Or are they saying they charge $200 just to have your meter read once a year? If so, yikes!
Protecting privacy shouldn’t be so expensive. Hydro-Québec should be encouraged to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better offering.
Offering opt-out is A Good Thing. Making it prohibitively expense is not.
Thanks to the Canadian reader who sent in this link.