I'm glad that at least in the USA, there doesn't seem to be the tendency to use public safety to support the economy.

Here in Manitoba, we have an NDP government, which is what Americans would probably call pro-socialist, or borderline communist.

Whenever Manitoba falls on hard economic times, the government swings into action finding ways of making the rich provide jobs. And, the easiest way to do that is to pass laws requiring even higher safety standards than we already have. For example, you simply pass a city by-law requiring all apartment blocks to be retrofitted with sprinkler systems. That keeps all the plumbers busy fitting old buildings with water sprinklers. And, you pass a city by-law requiring smoke barrier doorways to be installed on every floor before the stairwells so that smoke can't get into the stair wells in the event of a fire. That keeps all the carpenter's busy. And, of course, you pass a city by-law requiring all smoke detectors to be hard wired rather than battery operated, and that keeps all the electricians busy.

I'm all for safety, but from what I've seen, safety has been abused where I live, and it's purpose has been to create jobs rather than protect people, and it's a sickening situation where the government is looking for ways to make the rich waste their money on unnecessary improvements. Already Winnipeg has the highest fire safety standards for apartment blocks in North America, and come the next economic downturn, we will undoubtely have the highest earthquake safety standards for apartment blocks in all of North America too. The fact that Winnipeg is thousands of miles away from the nearest fault line and has never had an earthquake is no arguement against ensuring that people are safe if we do get one, and anyone who disagrees is just too greedy to realize that safety should come before profits.