Dear _________, and others at the Office of the Director, Water, Waste and Environment,

I have not received a reply to my letter below, other than a printed mailing stating that if I do not set up an appointment for installation immediately, I may be subject to penalties, which could involve interruption of service.

I realize now that in submitting my concerns, I was remiss in not, with them, submitting a proposal for action.  I will do that now.

I propose that when a Regina homeowner has the new water meter installed, that the homeowner be given the option of taking responsibility for submitting readings regularly, in lieu of having near-real-time electronic readings transmitted hourly from their home.

There would be some details that would need to be covered:

• The meter will need to be user-readable
• The continuance of this option for any homeowner would obviously be contingent on their actually submitting the regular readings.
• If readings are monthly, there should be a contingency plan for occasional missed readings, which would involve estimates of usage.
• It needs to be demonstrable to the homeowner that electronic data is not in fact being transmitted to the city.

This does not necessitate maintaining a duplicate, staff-heavy data collection system.

Here is why having such an option is so important:

In many electronic communications systems--mobile phones, landlines, home internet, Google Home, etc. -- we as users weigh the risks, costs and benefits of sharing our private information.  Importantly, we maintain control of what is shared to the degree that we have the option of disconnecting from these services when we choose to do so.

Maintaining personal control of what private information is shared with others is an important dimension of what constitutes freedom.and appropriate human autonomy.

The question of when one's home is occupied and when it is not, and what the patterns of human presence in the home are, is private information, and individuals and families should not be required to surrender control of access to that information.

If the City of Regina does not provide a means of opting out of near-real-time transmission of water usage data,  which is truly a transmission of the information I have described in the preceding paragraph, then it is demanding the surrender of the control of access to what is very significant personal information.  The City is not only demanding the surrender of that control, it is engaging in coercive measures.  You are threatening the denial of straight-forward access to one of the basic necessities of life.  Nothing could be more blatantly coercive.

So now I am faced with a choice.  Am I going to express care for my fellow residents of Regina, and give voice to this important issue, or am I going to simply comply, and give my tacit endorsement of this reprehensible coercion and, frankly, this abuse of the power that has been entrusted to those who have been tasked with serving the people of this city?

I do understand that I may need, in the days ahead, to give way to the to the City in this regard, submitting to its usurping of perogatives that belong to individuals and families.  I do, after all, need to ensure that the residents of my household have access to the necessities of life.  But I cannot in good conscience simply knuckle under to avoid the discomfort of speaking out.  I cannot in good conscience give tacit endorsement to what is being done.

Respectfully submitted,
Floyd Gadd