See the young man in the blue worker's uniform with reflective strips? He poked his head into Revelstoke city council chambers on May 8 about five minutes before their regular meeting was scheduled to start.
He was there to install a Smart Meter in the building, meaning he'd have to cut power to chamber. I didn't hear everything he said, but I did hear him say just "five minutes" to one of the councillors sitting near the door.
Council was about to start a busy meeting that included final 2012 City of Revelstoke budget deliberations, the final Land Use Plan vote, a PowerPoint presentation on urban chickens, a delegation from Revelstoke Mountain Resort there to hash out issues with the city, an RCMP presentation, the final Fees and Charges bylaw vote, a final presentation from consultants on wildfire risk mapping, the presentation of the 2012 Works Program ... you get the idea – a lot of stuff, and lots of stars and bars in the room.
Several of the presentations required the computerized overhead projector, which runs on electricity.
Council politely declined the brief power outage and asked the technician to come back sometime later.
So, after side-stepping the Smart Meter debate, it can be said that in the end council did say 'no' to their Smart Meter – and had a chuckle about it.