The quick answer raises at least two points. First, statutory damages are relatively rare. Most countries don't have them. We're generally one of the exceptions rather than the rule.
I think this notion that $5,000 is going to be viewed by the average Canadian as a licence to steal is completely out of touch with reality. For most Canadians, $5,000 is an awful lot of money. If anything is a dangerous signal, it is a potential multi-million-dollar liability for individuals for non-commercial infringement. That's what we have in the United States right now. There are more than 30,000 cases in which individuals have faced the prospect of a multi-million-dollar liability--losing their homes, losing all of their savings--for sharing a few songs. I think that's a fundamentally wrong, unjust message to many individuals. We want laws that target those who enable the infringement. We have penalties that are stronger, in terms of financial penalties, and statutory damages that are larger than those of any other country in the world, because many of them don't even have statutory damages.
To send a message that an individual Canadian is potentially on the hook for millions of dollars is the wrong message, and to suggest that somehow $5,000 is just pocket change and won't deter me from sharing files to my heart's content is out of touch with the reality for most Canadians, who would look at $5,000 as being an awfully expensive penalty to have to pay.