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Senator Accuses Poloz of Straying From Mandate to Back Trudeau:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a ... ate-to-back-trudeau
Stephen Poloz was accused by a senator of “straying too far” from his mandate by endorsing the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- an accusation the Bank of Canada governor said he firmly rejected.
Senator David Tkachuk, a lawmaker from the opposition Conservatives, cited comments Poloz made in a speech last month about the effects of child-care policy on labor force participation. He also said Poloz has been “heard to endorse” deficit spending and infrastructure spending.
“As far as I know governor, your job is inflation-targeting, monetary policy,” Tkachuk said during a Senate hearing Wednesday in Ottawa. “People have to have confidence that you’re an independent governor, and I think you may be straying a little bit beyond your mandate with these statements and creating a perception that you’re a little too close to the government in power.” He later said, for emphasis: “I think you are straying too far.”
The question drew a curt exchange between the two before Poloz responded by defending his comments as, essentially, a neutral study of things that affect the economy and twice saying it would be “bizarre” to ignore them. “Of course, the media is free to interpret them as endorsements if they choose. As you can tell, I reject that interpretation, very firmly actually -- because I’m very careful not to.”
http://business.financialpost.co ... stay-out-of-budgets
Governments across Canada have reason to think they have an official green light to spend big and run up deficits. The man operating the traffic signal: Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz. From Ottawa’s deficits to Ontario’s childcare plan to big pension spending on infrastructure, politicians can now turn to Poloz as an independent authority for approval.
By flashing that green light, however, Poloz has inappropriately set the Bank of Canada into a new role as ideological think tank, a role that is way beyond the bank’s official mandate — monetary policy — and well outside its traditional informal role as a guide to the state of the economy. |
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