Safety advocates may be quick to seek stricter regulations after tragic accidents but Stockwell Day, the senior federal cabinet minister responsible for B.C., said protectionist measures should strike a balance.
After the May 29 floatplane crash outside Tofino, there were calls for floatplane operators to require all passengers wear life jackets while aboard.
Executives at Harbour Air and other companies quickly rejected the proposal because they felt, in an emergency, people would inflate the jackets too early and be unable to safely leave the plane.
The July 3 accident on Shuswap Lake where a speedboat rammed a houseboat has similarly amplified calls for boaters to be required to wear life jackets while on the water.
“Whenever something like this happens, there’s an instant cry for more something – more regulations,” Day told Business in Vancouver after the incident. “You could pass a law that boats can’t have motors. I guarantee you, you’d have fewer boating accidents. But, at what point do you stop and say, ‘Look, we have taken good responsible actions to provide a high degree of prevention.’”
Day believes if the government were to go much further with regulations that it could limit people being involved in boating at all. He suggested it might also keep people from going outdoors and exercising.
“There always has to be a balance,” Day said. “You do need regulations but sometimes when something tragic happens, people think more [regulations] and more [government action] would have stopped it. That’s the reality of living on planet Earth.”