The Bank of Canada has raised its benchmark interest rate by the largest amount in more than 20 years, sharply increasing the cost of borrowing in an attempt to rein in runaway inflation.
Canada’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday by a full percentage point to 2.5 per cent. That’s the biggest one-time increase in the bank’s rate since 1998.
The bank’s rate impacts the rate that Canadians get from their lenders on things like mortgages and lines of credit. Two of Canada’s big banks have already moved their benchmark rates in response, with Royal Bank and TD raising their prime lending rates from 3.7 per cent to 4.7 per cent as of Thursday morning.
The other major lenders are expected to follow suit in short order.
All things being equal, a central bank cuts the lending rate when it wants to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to borrow and invest. It raises rates when it wants to cool down an overheated economy.
After slashing its rate to record lows at the start of the pandemic, the bank has now raised its rate four times since March as part of an aggressive campaign to fight inflation, which has risen to its highest level in 40 years.
Economists had been expecting the bank to raise its rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, but the full percentage point increase was ahead of even those high expectations. And even after this record-setting increase, more hikes are expected, because of how serious the spectre of stubbornly high inflation is.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said the bank made the decision to front-load its rate-hiking campaign because Canadians “are getting more worried that high inflation is here to stay. We cannot let that happen.”
“We are increasing our policy interest rate quickly to prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched. If it does, it will be more painful for the economy — and for Canadians — to get inflation back down,” he said, noting that the bank doesn’t expect the official inflation rate to come down to three per cent until next year, and wont get back to its two per cent target until 2024.
WATCH | Bank of Canada governor explains why it’s so important to tame inflation:
Bank of Canada announces a 1% interest rate increase
5 hours ago
Duration 0:31
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem raised the bank’s benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point to 2.5 per cent — the largest one-time increase since 1998 — to combat high inflation.
Large hike warranted, economist says
Economist Stephen Gordon with the University of Laval says it’s clear the bank has miscalculated the speed with which inflation was going to heat up, and are now trying to course correct on the fly.
“They’re paying a bit of a catch up here, and that’s partly why they’re going up so fast,” he said in an interview.
While the size of the hike was outside the norm, he says it was warranted given the unprecedented challenges facing the economy today.
“We’re in a situation where we have supply chain disruptions, really high oil prices, pent up demand coming out of the pandemic,” he said.
“We’re in new territory here, so there’s very little to guide us in the way of history. We’re just going to have to feel the way forward.”
Housing market will feel the pinch
The impact of higher rates will be felt most directly on the housing market, as variable rate mortgages are closely tied to the central bank’s rate.
Canada’s housing market was red hot for most of the pandemic, as record low rates fuelled demand and pushed prices up to their highest levels ever. But that direction turned in the first part of this year, as the central bank’s signal that higher rates were coming took the wind out of the sails of insatiable demand.
Prospective home buyers must have their finances stress tested to ensure that they can withstand higher lending rates, and Wednesday’s rate hike will raise that testing bar to about seven per cent for fixed rate loans, and six per cent for variable loans.
If borrowers don’t pass the stress test, lenders are obligated to lower the amount they will lend to them, until they meet the bar.
Anyone who currently has a variable rate loan — and anyone looking to get one in order to buy — will likely notice their mortgage rates go up almost immediately.
On a $400,000 mortgage amortized for the normal time frame of 25 years, a borrower who signs up for a loan at a three per cent rate will pay $1,893 a month. But if their rate jumps by a full percentage point, the way the bank’s rate just did, that monthly payment will go up to $2,104 a month. That’s an extra $211 every month out of their budget.
If the rate goes to five per cent, the monthly payment jumps to $2,326, which would be more than 22 per cent higher than what they were originally paying.
More rate hikes expected
Increases like that are exactly what home owner Tim Capes was worried about last month when he switched his home loan from a variable rate to a fixed-rate mortgage.
“We felt the pain every time interest rates would go up and we’d get a letter from the bank that our mortgage would go up by a certain amount and the budget would get a tiny bit tighter,” he told CBC News in an interview.
Tim Capes holds his infant son, Ben, in front of his Markham, Ont., home. He had a variable rate mortgage on the property but recently decided to switch to a fixed-rate loan because he’s worried interest rates are set to rise quickly. (Craig Chivers/CBC)
After seeing his payment go up each time the central bank raised its rate in March, April and then June, Capes decided to bite the bullet and lock in at a fixed rate that is costing him about $700 more per payment than he was paying before, but at least comes with the certainty that it won’t change for the next five years.
“I definitely wish I had done it earlier when the rates were even lower because definitely selecting a variable in the first place was a mistake,” the Markham, Ont., resident said. “But we ultimately decided it was a mistake we could afford to correct. So we did.”
Economists are expecting several more rate hikes to come, and so is Capes.
“As those rate hikes start happening, it’s a lot easier knowing that my mortgage isn’t going up with every single rate hike.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
