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This volume features interesting images and anecdotes about Canada's central bank and its place in Canadian society from 1935 until the present.

Conference held on 6 and 7 December 2005 (papers in unedited, electronic format only)

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is raising its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 3 1/4 per cent.

Helliwell traces the changes that have occurred at the Bank of Canada since the early 1960s, when he first began a long and extensive relationship with the institution and its staff. He begins with his work on the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance (the Porter Commission) and continues over the next 40 years, giving particular focus to the Bank's analytic and research activities. Although he is careful to note the benefits of alternative analytical and information-gathering techniques, such as the extensive mail and direct interview survey that he and his colleagues conducted as part of the Royal Commission, Helliwell devotes most of his attention to the Bank's econometric modelling efforts, starting with RDX1 and RDX2 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He cites some of the internal, as well as external, obstacles that had to be overcome as the Bank's modelling efforts advanced, and how shifting trends in the economics profession have sometimes posed a challenge. Helliwell concludes that these developments helped the Bank to come of age and take its place in the front ranks of the world's evidence-based policy-research institutions.

The revised Terms of Participation and the Standard Terms for Government of Canada Auctions, prepared jointly by the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada on behalf of the Government of Canada, will become effective on 13 December 2005.

Measures of productivity tell us how much output we produce from the use of tangible inputs - such as skilled workers and capital equipment - and intangible inputs - such as technological advances and managerial and entrepreneurial know-how. Productivity rises over time as we boost output by finding new and more efficient ways to use these inputs.

Improving Canada's productivity performance requires more efficient allocation of labour and capital resources, and continued innovation in both products and production processes, Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said today at a conference organized by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Conference held on 18 and 19 November 2005 (papers in unedited, electronic format only)

Today, I want to share with all of you Canada's perspective on the design of an inflation-targeting system, some of the lessons we have learned over almost 15 years of experience with explicit inflation targets, and some of the challenges that remain. This topic is timely, because the Bank of Canada's inflation-targeting agreement with the Canadian government is up for renewal next year, and I am pleased to note that, earlier today, the Government announced its intention to renew our agreement for another five years.

Over the past year, I have spoken a number of times on the topic of efficiency, and why it is so important for Canadian policy-makers to keep in mind the goal of an efficient financial system. Today, I want to talk about Canada's system of pension plans and how they contribute to the efficiency of financial markets and of the economy as a whole.