I don't understand the purpose of the motion. I'm not convinced of its relevance.
The Bank of Canada produces its monetary policy reports and releases the information. All the financial markets around the world look at this with great interest.
We're living through an unprecedented pandemic, which has led to fiscal policies with unprecedented deficits. This was necessary. That's what the leader of the Conservative Party thinks.
To back that up, I'll add that the Bank of Canada's role was to provide the necessary liquidity and credit to ensure that we don't fall into a liquidity trap or into financial crises such as the ones experienced in recent decades around the world. The central bank had an important role to play. I applaud its work.
At the end of his term, Mr. Poloz came to explain the Bank of Canada's role. He reiterated the importance of credit. He emphasized that, even with an injection of liquidity or an increase in credit in difficult times, there isn't any inflationary goal. We've seen this in recent months. The markets haven't damaged the value of the Canadian dollar because of this monetary policy. Interest rates haven't increased, and so on. There isn't any inflationary pressure at all, because liquidity was necessary.
When the Bank of Canada buys and sells government bonds, two things can happen.
First, if it resells or buys back the bond at the same price that it sold for, there isn't any gap for the market. Ultimately, this costs the Bank of Canada and taxpayers nothing because there were no risk premiums. The measure didn't do anything. It just stabilized what was put in place.
Second, if a gap exists, the reason is that the Bank played a role in addressing market concerns and ensuring sufficient credit for the provinces, the federal government or businesses. This helps stabilize the economy. Without this, we run the risk of major crises, which is a serious matter.
Yesterday, Paul Beaudry, the deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, took the time to give an interview to La Presse. This interview is directly related to the motion and to the topic brought up by the member for Carleton in the past few days, or even weeks.
Mr. Beaudry said that “the Bank of Canada's low borrowing rates aren't providing a free lunch for the government.” He added the following:
...the recent central bank bond-buying program isn't the equivalent of printing money or underwriting government debt at no cost. Instead, the program is a way to keep borrowing costs in check and to support households and businesses in the wake of the pandemic...
When we play around with these matters, it worries me. I've seen too many economies around the world collapse as a result of monetary policy games. The policy must be strictly enforced. We can't joke around and play politics with this issue, in my opinion. The information is transparent and available. When it isn't, financial markets around the world react very quickly.
I also want to remind the committee that, during the Great Depression in the 1930s, there was a rejection of Bank of Canada financing. This was the policy of Alberta's Social Credit premier, John Edward Brownlee. When the stock market crashed in 1929, this was his attitude. Alberta went bankrupt in 1934.
If the Bank of Canada were doing a poor job, there wouldn't be a larger deficit. The markets would step in and say that what we're doing is wrong. We would see an increase in risk premiums, a devaluation in the dollar or an increase in interest rates. This hasn't been the case at all.
The information is being shared properly. If the Parliamentary Budget Officer and his team, who have already been doing a tremendous amount of work since the start of the pandemic, were asked to carry out a lengthy and challenging research project and to submit it just before the holidays, this would delay all their other work.
That's why, Mr. Chair, I don't support this motion at all.