grounding/bonding - all end up in the same place in your panel.
Bonding - to bring all metal in your house to the same electrical potential, should something like a cut extension cord conduct electricity to this bonded metal, the bonding wire (also a ground wire) will carry the electricity back to the panel, but because of the high amperage it will blow the breaker.
Grounding - allows for you to safely ground something like a lightning strike which is low current and won't blow the breaker, but has high voltage which can potentially end your life
Both bonding and grounding (terms are even used together in the NEC) physically end up in the same place, but react differently because of the different electrical properties associated with both.
When you bond your pool equipment as per NEC, you protect against faults in your electrical system possibly making the metal live.
Grounding, you protect against acts of God's electricity or other outside sources of electricity possibly making your metal live.
Bonding does not need a tick wire to be effective, but will work through a thick wire just the same.
Grounding does need a thick wire because it will melt the thin wire instantly due to the high voltage that would be incurred.
in the end, the thick wire satisfies both scenarios, where the thin wire does not - your choice.
Codes are different everywhere, just because the NEC states what it does, does not make it right everywhere, I think the CEC took acts of God into account, the NEC is only dealing with minimum requirements for bonding purposes only.
Remeber, these are MINIMUM requirements, tehre's nothing stopping anybody from going above and beyond these giudelines.
They specify to use #14 as house wire, this doesn't mean you can't UPGRADE and use #12 or even #10.
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