To clear up some history, in 2008 Hydro reversed their two-tier billing system and began penalizing their better customers. Since poles, wires, transformers and meters cost the same for each user, Hydro gets a better return on investment from their large users and it was rational to reward them. Now of course, rates go up with usage and those who use a tiny amount of electricity pay the lowest rates.

Hydro was once an electrical power supply company – they are now in the business of social engineering, encouraging their customers to use less of their product.

At one time, Hydro searched for the best sites for generating the electrical power BC residents need. Now, their advertising tells us to turn out lights, unplug microwaves and they’ll paying for your old fridge.

Hydro now pays premium rates for inefficient run-of-the-river and wind-generated private power, giving a windfall profit to developers, at your expense. And they transfer 100’s of millions of dollars from power user to the government – they’ve entered the field of tax collection.

Individuals who both cook and heat their homes and water with natural gas are rewarded by Hydro with lower rates as lighting uses only a comparatively small amount of power. This is not the way a company that is trying to sell their product would act. And it is because of government mandates that BC Hydro is encouraging their customer to use less electricity.

Should all of our choices be dictated by Victoria? Should our political leaders take their direction from the Sierra Club or Greenpeace? Can we be sure the best decision will be made by our elected leaders? Are we, as is so often pointed out, incapable of looking after ourselves? And if we respect freedom, should market forces dictate our energy policy rather than a bureaucracy?

Wisdom does not come from government officials. Individual citizens are far wiser at spending their own money. The entire social engineering movement is a needless violation of our rights as human beings.

Further, the mandatory change to digital, ‘smart meter program’, the timing of construction of site ‘C’, and the ongoing payments to buy stand-by power are all costs that could have been avoided if BC Hydro was just a power company. Smart meters would have been phased in painlessly over time by a private company. Also a private company would have fought to keep Burrad Thermal operational rather than cave in and scrape that viable natural gas generating facility in order to meet the mandated zero carbon plan.
And so the blame for BC Hydro mis-direction must be laid a the feet of those responsible; our political leaders. We have for many years, elected people to public office that are either unwilling or unable to reject green activism.
While BC Hydro still supplies power reliably to the users, it’s costs are artificially higher than needed because of manipulation. That trend will continue until it meets public resistance. Extrapolate from today by looking at the province of Ontario, a landscape littered with wind-turbines and power costs that quadrupled over the last twenty years. And no control by the citizens.
To give the devil his due, the provincial Liberals have taken a tepid step away from the disastrous legacy passed down from Gordon Campbell. A few of the most egregious private power contracts have been cancelled. Is it enough to prevent BC from duplicating Ontario’s electrical supply fate? Only time will tell.

Until we actively strive to take back control of our lives, the erosion of our freedom will continue. All three parties in the BC Legislature share a common belief; you are too foolish to make the proper decisions and they will make them for you. And our bureaucracy is now striving to give the gift of energy poverty.

A BC Conservative government would recognize your right to live your life, we would stop trying to reform the citizen but rather stick to the rule of, do no harm and let freedom thrive. In other words, a return to the source of our wealth, the attitude that built this fine country.