When I look at how it is framed in the act, I guess the purpose of the penalty is to promote compliance. I find it interesting that we think we're promoting compliance by putting a penalty in place. The definition of deterrence is “the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences”. That sounds to me like what a penalty is intended to do.
Here it says that the penalty is to promote compliance. To me, it's an interesting spin on the issue, and I'm not sure if even changing the word would make a difference, but I recognize what Mr. Aubin is trying to get at.