Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada
to the East Kings Chamber of Commerce
Greenwich, Nova Scotia
8 November 2004
The Bank of Canada: Striving for Stability, Predictability, and Confidence
(Note: This speech was first posted at the Bank of Canada website and is reprinted with permission.)It's a pleasure to be back in Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley. I'm always impressed by the natural beauty of this region, even in November, and by the wealth of history and tradition that helps to define its distinctive character. In this part of Canada, of course, history really means history. This was well illustrated in August when Nova Scotians celebrated four hundred years of culture and tradition during the world Acadian congress (Congrès acadien mondial). The closing ceremony, most fittingly, was held nearby at Grand Pré.
While I have visited Nova Scotia several times over the years, this is the first time I am doing so on behalf of the Bank of Canada.
Getting out on a regular basis to all parts of the country is an important part of the Bank's commitment to meeting its responsibilities as Canada's central bank. In addition, through its regional offices, the Bank benefits from a steady flow of information from, and interaction with, all parts of the national economy.
I want to thank Danny Gallivan, the member from Nova Scotia on the Bank's Board of Directors, for helping to organize this visit. I would also like to introduce our two senior representatives for the Atlantic region, David Amirault and Josée Nadeau. You should feel free to ask them any questions you may have about the Bank of Canada and its role. They can be reached throughout the year at the Bank's offices in Halifax.
Today, I want to talk about some of the ways that the Bank of Canada tries to help the Canadian economy achieve its full potential, and then I will discuss our outlook for the economy and for inflation.
I will focus on two of our four main areas of responsibility—monetary policy and currency. As a thumbnail sketch of our other two main functions, let me just say that the Bank also aims to promote the safety and efficiency of Canada's financial system and to provide efficient and effective funds-management services to the government.
If I were allowed only one word to describe the quality that we strive for in all our functions, that word might be "stability." But, in many ways, it might also be "predictability." Or it could be simply "confidence." So there really isn't one word that completely does the job.
But it should be clear what the Bank doesn't want to be. In an already uncertain, and sometimes volatile, world, the Bank does not want to be a source of unwanted surprises for people who are trying to make sound economic and financial decisions in their business and personal lives. That's one of the reasons why we want Canadians to know what to expect from us—what we are trying to do, and how we do it.
