"We want our pilots to be entirely free from any financial consideration when they take a safety-related decision," WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said.

Is it somehow coming out of their pay?

I just retired as a school bus driver. There were some rules that required I cancel for safety reasons. There was also a rule that said, in effect, I was the best judge of my abilities and local conditions and circumstances, making me free to cancel even when cancellation was not mandatory.

I both cases, I was still paid as if I hadn't cancelled. This was not just a secret little rule, but hammered in to us to make sure that we understood there was no penalty for cancellation.

I never once had an administrator question my decision to cancel. In the rare case that a parent questioned my decision, it was referred to administration who unfailingly backed me up. I'm sure there was a process in place to deal with malingering, but that's pretty much standard procedure in every workplace.

If there is not a similar regime for pilots, there should be.