It's great to be back in Vancouver and to renew acquaintances at the Board of Trade. I'm going to spend some time today discussing the Bank of Canada's outlook for the Canadian economy and inflation, and how we are responding. But in order to understand the current economic situation, we need to look at some of the extraordinary events of the past year or so and how those events have affected the economy.
Canada's reliance on foreign trade has required us to be active internationalists for decades. Louis Rasminsky, who went on to become Governor of the Bank of Canada, was one of Canada's delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference that led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Rasminsky played an important role, formal and informal, at the talks.
A consultation document on issues relating to the design and operation of the Real Return Bond program, prepared jointly by the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada, is being published today.
The purpose of these consultations is to obtain the views of market participants on issues relating to the design and operation of the government Real Return Bond (RRB) program.
For more than 70 years now, the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs has been bringing Canadians together with the purpose of asking some thought-provoking questions and encouraging lively, stimulating debates and action on a variety of key public policy issues.
The Bank of Canada today released its 2004 schedule of eight dates for announcing decisions on its key policy interest rate, and confirmed the announcement dates for the remainder of this year.
Since the April Monetary Policy Report, there have been a number of unanticipated developments that have changed the outlook for inflation and economic activity in Canada.