Khorton,
Thanks for the information you gave. I don't have a performance manual to hand so I used the figures I had available as an example which were the landing field lengths needed from the abnormal checklist. The single engine flap 15 case was the nearest estimation I had to a "normal landing", most other system failures give greater increases.
The differences in the speeds are an extra 20kts to Vref at flap 15 and an extra 15 knots at flap 35 (or at least were in 2005 - they may have been adjusted since as knowledge changes as fleet operating hours increase). These gave respectively an increase in landing field length of 25% at flap 15 and 20% at flap 30. Those were figures from company documents but I always supposed they would have originated from Bombardier.
The point I am making is that it makes no difference whether the speeds are re-bugged manually or automatically, the calculations still have to be done. I suspect that Porter either have to very carefully limit their landing weights if they anticipate landing in Toronto city centre airport in conditions which require them to have "the increas ref speeds" switch on, or accept that on those days they may be diverting to Pearson. This was similar when Flybe operate into Guernsey in the Channel Islands south west of the uk, except there the microclimate is such that even in winter those conditions are rarely met. In such conditions on a wet runway the max landing weight was reduced from 28 tonnes to 23.7, which with minimum fuel on arrival for the closest alternate restricted the passenger load to about 53.
I totally agree with you - they should have been better trained in stall recovery, or technically incipient stall recovery as that is what the stick shaker event was. And the airline and indeed the FAA should be mandating that pilots must be properly rested - if they chose to commute then they should make suitable local arrangements.
However cost alone should not be a reason not to consider a software/hardware change. I accept what you are saying about the complexity, but possibly in this case my suggestion might have prevented them entering the stick shake regime at all.