The gold reserves you're talking about are held in the government's foreign currency exchange fund account. That is not on the Bank of Canada's balance sheet. That's the government's account. As the fiscal agent, we manage that account for them. We don't make the decisions of what to hold in that account. We make the purchases once the government decides what to hold in that account.
More broadly, though, the way I would address your question is by saying that the purpose of that account is to have on hand some liquidity in different currencies. For something to be liquid, you need to be able to deploy it quickly. Gold doesn't really meet that definition. I think the decision to move out of gold and into actual currencies was probably to make sure that that account is liquid and can serve the purpose that it's there to serve.