Will Safety Regulations Cripple Society??

Worth Repeating: This first appeared here on Feb. 2 this year but is worth repeating when you stop to consider the added burden to society that some of these 'safety regulations' are adding to all of us. An article in the local daily quotes local builder Chris Erb as saying new seismic requirements have added $40,000 to one building alone.
You have to ask yourself, if these standards are based in common sense or are they the product of a level of bureaucracy that comes up with such rules, just to justify their own existence?
Consider what the cost to the province will be, if the same 1:10,000 standard, being applied to Colliery Park Dams were applied province wide? The standard is so unattainable as to be ludicrous.

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When Does Common Sense Safety Concerns

Become Ridiculous, Absurd, Ludicrous, Preposterous, Farcical

Or Just Plain Cockamamie?

I realize that when an engineer is tasked with approving any decision for which he/she may be held liable they will always err on the side of safety. Hence, the expression 'over-engineered'.

The term 'over-engineered' would be not unlike the standard that the Dam Safety Branch is holding the city to when it comes to designing the dams at Colliery Park. Because of a combination of probability and outcome (loss of over 100 lives) the Dam Safety Branch requires a new dam (or rehabilitation) be able to meet a standard for an event that 'could' occur with a once in a 10,000 year chance.

We are all for public safety and the reduction of risk, hence we have speed limits, airbags, helmets, mouthguards and the like but there comes a point where even bubblewrapping everyone would still be considered to pose a potential 'risk'  albeit it may only happen once in a 10,000 year period, that some bureaucratic office might deem unacceptable.

Sound like so much nonsense? Well that is exactly what the Dam Safety Branch brain trust has decided is the new standard for dam safety.

How Much Of This Safety Paranoia Can Society Afford?

It is all well and good for some guy or gal hauling down $200,000 or so, to arbitrarily decide that Nanaimo taxpayers are going to have to spring for a dam that can withstand a 1 in 10,000 year event. A decision which will cost Nanaimo taxpayers multiples of what it would cost to build a dam that is designed to withstand a 1 in 3,000 year event.

What will the economic impact of this decision have on the 1649 dams throughout the province? Think about it!

How much paranoia driven decisions being made by highly paid 'professionals' can we as a society afford?

Not unlike another unelected bureaucracy that requires us to spend $82,000,000 to insure the safety of a water supply that has been safe for 150 years!