Editor, The News:
Re: Hydro systems need attention (The News, Sept. 30).
Michael McBratney either works for B.C. Hydro, is a card-carrying Liberal or he is simply drinking the Kool-Aid.
He writes that B.C. Hydro rates must be increased due to the lack of attention given to the infrastructure since the 1950s and 1960s. Not true.
The Liberals own report on this issue indicates the main causes of rate increases:
• acquisition of run of river power contracts that lock us into deals that range up to 30 and 40 years, and prices that range from four to ten times the market rates. Thank you, Gordon Campbell.
• $1 billion for smart meters that will allow Hydro to charge a higher rate to families who use power between 5-10 p.m. every evening. Thanks for the concern about families, Christy Clark.
• Hydro’s bloated payrolls that have increased 41 per cent over the past eight years.
• double pensions for Hydro’s non-union employees;
• the fact Hydro has more employees earning more than $100,000 a year then any other Crown corporation.
The minister in charge of B.C. Hydro, Rich Coleman, has shown no backbone on this file. He could take a stand and cancel this ridiculous smart meter program, then he could put a stop to these run of the river power projects and find a legal way to get out of the existing deals.
Way down the list is the cost of infrastructure upgrades, which is covered by the existing rate structure. There is no need for rate increases to perform infrastructure upgrades, so I suggest people get their facts straight before making the rest of us feel guilty about complaining when it comes to continual, unrequired rate increases.
Mike Boileau
Maple Ridge