VICTORIA B次元官网网址� The smart meter installation van arrived on my street last week, as BC HydroB次元官网网址檚 smart grid project heads toward the halfway mark.

This system will not only detect outages, electricity loss and theft, it enables a voluntary time-of-use system where users can get a discount by shifting consumption to low-peak times. You could even set up wind or solar generation that the meter would record and subtract from your bill.

But apparently no one wants to talk about that. Black Press papers continue to run letters with exaggerated or false claims that stoke baseless fear of radio waves.

Where is this coming from? IB次元官网网址檓 grateful to the anonymous smart-meter foe who started sending me updates from B次元官网网址淐itizens for Safe Technology,B次元官网网址� a loose collection of U.S. and Canadian activists that claims to include doctors, lawyers and other professionals.

Not much is professional about the Canadian content on their website.

A video starts with a juvenile union parody showing executives plotting to sell BC Hydro to General Electric. Then it moves to an apparently serious interview with Bill Vander Zalm, who expands on his earlier conspiracy theory about the harmonized sales tax being part of a European Union plot for world domination.

Vander Zalm asserts that smart meters and appliances create such a powerful surveillance network, B次元官网网址渢heyB次元官网网址檒l even know what youB次元官网网址檙e cooking.B次元官网网址�

There are those who claim smart meters can tell what channel your TV is on, but this is the first IB次元官网网址檝e heard about them detecting whether youB次元官网网址檙e having eggs or oatmeal for breakfast.

And who might B次元官网网址渢heyB次元官网网址� be?

B次元官网网址淭he big picture is of course that weB次元官网网址檙e moving to globalization,B次元官网网址� Vander Zalm intones. B次元官网网址淓ventually weB次元官网网址檒l be governed out of Brussels, Belgium or someplace like that. And this all ties into that. They can monitor whatB次元官网网址檚 happening anywhere in the world. ItB次元官网网址檚 Big Brother. WeB次元官网网址檒l be totally controlled.B次元官网网址�

He stops just short of what IB次元官网网址檒l call the Full Tinfoil, a belief that these radio waves control minds directly.

Wildlife artist Robert Bateman also makes an ass of himself in a brief video, where he describes hiring someone to come in and detect B次元官网网址渉otB次元官网网址� wiring in his Saltspring Island mansion. (A surprising number of self-appointed smart meter experts sell measuring and B次元官网网址渟hieldingB次元官网网址� services.)

A reader sent me a local newspaper commentary by Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall, basically a vague summary of NDP talking points about smart meters being too expensive and a possible health threat.

This is interesting, because the City of Nelson owns its own power utility, which started installing wireless meters in 2004. They finished last year, with no protest.

I asked Mungall why. She was on the city council that chose a different model, a B次元官网网址渄rive-byB次元官网网址� meter. They broadcast readings every 15 seconds and still need meter readers, who no longer have get out of their trucks.

BC HydroB次元官网网址檚 meters signal only three or four times a day, but one of the often-repeated false claims about them is that they secretly transmit much more often with some sort of damaging energy pulses. And yet these granola-loving West Kootenay folks cheerfully endure a 24/7 bombardment of what are essentially brief cell phone signals.

Mungall said Nelson council specifically rejected a smart grid system, B次元官网网址渂ecause of the cost.B次元官网网址� Somehow retaining meter readers saves the city money.

She noted that rural parts of her constituency are serviced by BC Hydro, and some people are very concerned.

IB次元官网网址檒l bet they are. Not just in West Kootenay, but a few other remote areas known for production of B.C.B次元官网网址檚 number one cash crop.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com