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OTTAWA – Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says he is pleased that inflation has fallen to two per cent, but the central bank now has to “stick the landing” and keep price growth centred around the target.

That’s according to prepared remarks the governor delivered in Toronto on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance and the Canadian Bankers Association.

“It has been a long journey. Now we want to keep inflation close to the centre of the one to three per cent inflation-control band,” Macklem said.

The governor said it’s reasonable to expect more interest rate cuts, given the progress made on inflation. He said the pace and timing of cuts will depend on the central bank’s evaluation of the economic data.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the annual inflation rate fell to two per cent in August, the lowest level in more than three years.

The central bank now wants to see its core measures of inflation as well as shelter price growth cool further, the governor said.

The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate three times so far, bringing it to 4.25 per cent.

Some economists are bracing for potentially larger interest rate cuts now that inflation is back at the two per cent target.

CIBC is forecasting the central bank will lower its policy rate by another two percentage points by the middle of next year. Its forecast includes two half-percentage point rate cuts to get there.

The Bank of Canada’s next interest rate announcement is scheduled for Oct. 23.

The governor also said in his speech that the Bank of Canada is scaling back its work on a central bank digital currency, noting there is not a “compelling case” for one right now in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VICTORIA – Former British Columbia chief coroner Lisa Lapointe is slated to appear alongside BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau for a policy announcement in Victoria related to the province’s illicit-toxic drug crisis.

Lapointe retired earlier this year after 13 years on the job and in the midst of the toxic drug crisis that has killed more than 15,000 people since a health emergency was declared in 2016.

Before her retirement Lapointe lamented that the emergency never received a “a co-ordinated response commensurate with the size of (the) crisis.”

In her final months on the job, a review panel recommended providing controlled drugs without prescriptions but the idea was almost immediately rejected by the provincial government.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, NDP Leader David Eby will be in Terrace in B.C.’s northwest looking to win back the Skeena riding being vacated by Ellis Ross, who held the seat for BC United, but now will run in the federal election for the Conservatives.

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is scheduled to spend the morning making an announcement in Kimberly, in the Kootenays, followed by a meet-and-greet 30 kilometres south in Cranbrook.

All three leaders are scheduled to debate each other two days before advance polling opens.

A consortium of broadcasters announced the Oct. 8 debate will air from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on all major television and radio news networks and be moderated by Angus Reid Institute president Shachi Kurl.

Election day is Oct. 19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

ST. STEPHEN, N.B. – New Brunswick’s Liberals are pledging to overhaul the way the province recruits health professionals should the party win the Oct. 21 provincial election.

Leader Susan Holt, campaigning Tuesday in St. Stephen, N.B., said the party would change the compensation model for doctors and increase the number of residency spaces for doctors in training.

The Liberal plan also promises to streamline the process for recognizing the credentials of foreign-trained doctors and other health professionals.

Though she released few other details, Holt said 10 additional physician training seats at Dalhousie University in Halifax would cost $430,000 each year.

“We need to innovate in how we recruit health-care professionals,” Holt said. “A centralized departmental model that continues to focus on vacancies instead of health-care professionals hasn’t worked.”

She said the recruitment plan includes calling on local communities and health professionals to help with presenting offers that might appeal to individual doctors and other health professionals.

“When we identify a health professional that wants to practise in New Brunswick, we find the role that fits them — we don’t try to fit them into our box,” Holt told reporters.

“We need to make sure we are tailoring our offer to what the health-care professionals want to do to be here, and we have to employ a team of people to do it.”

Holt said the Liberal recruitment program would also do a better job of tracking the number of job offers and how professionals are being identified.

“It’s about getting out there and aggressively head hunting the talent that we want,” she said. “We need to supercharge our recruitment process because we are losing the recruitment battle with other provinces.”

The latest announcement adds to previous Liberal commitments to establish at least 30 new community care clinics to help cut primary care wait-times and a program to provide retention payments to nurses.

On Monday, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs promised to reduce health-care wait-times by expanding the scope of practice of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, paramedics and pharmacists.

But the party did not provide details, saying it would work with medical professionals and their governing bodies to “evaluate all scopes of practice.”

Meanwhile, Higgs did not have any campaign events scheduled for Tuesday. A party official confirmed he spent the day preparing for a televised leaders debate on Wednesday night.

Higgs, who is seeking a third term in office, is expected to square off against Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon.

CBC TV will begin broadcasting the debate at 6 p.m. ADT from the Empress Room at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton. The event will also be carried live to an online audience cbc.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.