Often when some natural disaster has occurred or a public health challenge emerges, we hear leaders exercising “an abundance of caution” when adopting a conservative strategy. An example was the boil water advisory issued in Winnipeg during 2016 in in response to very low levels of E.coli in a few water samples. And is it not always better to be safe than sorry?
Well, no, at least not always. In fact, playing it safe has a lot to do with the difficulties our farmers face in exporting Canola.
Let’s start at the beginning. Termed the precautionary principle, playing it safe and not being sorry has become a centrepiece of environmental law.