It's important to apply the precautionary principle at the start, because we have to look before we leap. We can't put the genie back in the bottle. We can't put the chemicals back in the bottle. The long title of this act is “an act respecting pollution prevention”. It also talks about principles. The minister mentioned principles, but he didn't identify them.
In addition to precaution, there's pollution prevention and polluter pays. I'm most interested in the first two, because we don't want the polluter to have to pay. We don't want there to be polluters.