![\"Smart](\"http:\/\/gccihome.com\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/smart-electricity-meter-300x226.jpg\")
Well the folks in the province of Ontario, are going to be hit with another tax! It seems that the province has spent $850 m to install Smart Meters for Electrical Usage around the province. Now they want to charge 75 cents a month for two years to recover some of these costs. It was not enough to raise the rates, install smart meters and force us into doing laundry at night and on weekends. We now have to pay for these meters which we did not want in the first place.<\/p>\n
There is an election in Ontario right now and we vote on Oct 2nd. Surely we can send a message to the liberals in power at the moment. Either give them a minority or send them packing! It is just disgusting the way they have raised our taxes to an unbelievable level in this province. We are one of the highest taxed governments in north America.\u00a0 No wonder we are losing jobs, business does not want to move here and many are moving out of the province.
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For those of you who may not be aware the smart meter incorporates a power usage meter by hour and so rates can be charged by hour. As a result we pay a high rate per KW from 11am until 5pm, a slightly lower rate from 7am until 11am and from 5pm until 7pm. In the hours from 7pm until 7am, we have the lowest rates which are about one half of the rate during the peak period. You can save a lot of money by avoiding using electricity during the daytime in the peak hour area.<\/p>\n
From a financial view point, these meters have probably been very successful. We reduce the amount of energy we use. Which means we avoid building more electrical generation plants and there is less pollution. However this also means that the government who runs our electrical utility takes in less money. So now they want to recover some of the cost i.e. the 75 cent tax on smart meters!<\/p>\n
I am all for reducing our carbon footprint, but let’s find a way to do this without more tax. We all know that this 75 cent tax for two years will remain and become permanent. We will have to replace these meters at some point with new and better meters. Someone has to pay for that!<\/p>\n