However, the head of the Quebec government preferred to defend the independence of the Bank of Canada and therefore refused to try to influence its decisions. (Photo: The Canadian Press)
Prime Minister François Legault will not ask the Bank of Canada to stop the rise in interest rates.
On the eve of a revision of the Bank of Canada’s key rate, the Parti Québécois (PQ) demanded an intervention from Mr. Legault, but he closed the door at a press conference Tuesday in Granby. The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) also added its voice, but in a rather confused way.
The PQ asked the prime minister to do like his counterparts in Ontario and British Columbia, who both demanded the end of a series of 10 successive rate increases, which began in March 2022.
However, the head of the Quebec government preferred to defend the independence of the Bank of Canada and therefore refused to try to influence its decisions.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to go and suggest putting both hands in the decisions of the Bank of Canada,” pleaded Mr. Legault on the sidelines of an announcement of an investment in the sector. battery.
He added that the country’s central bank “links itself, whether we like it or not, also with the decisions that are taken by the (Federal) Reserve in the United States”.
The Prime Minister said he understood that the rise in interest rates “is hurting a lot of Quebecers.” He acknowledged that homeowners are seeing their mortgages “significantly increase”.
This would represent hundreds of dollars less each month in the wallets of Quebec households and it would be “catastrophic”, said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a press release, to justify his request to the Prime Minister.
Contradictory message to the PLQ
In the caucus of the elected PLQ in Mauricie, the interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay and the deputy Frédéric Beauchemin, who aspires to the leadership of the party, did not seem to have tuned their violin on the relevance of an exit from the Prime Minister.
Mr. Legault “surely has an opinion that he could send (to the Bank of Canada), it could help in the debate,” for his part supported Mr. Tanguay.
-“I don’t think the Bank of Canada is sensitive to political pressure,” said Beauchemin, who was previously head of Quebec capital markets for Scotiabank.
“The central bank governor will do whatever he wants on his own. He won’t be swayed by any letter that may be sent, that’s for sure.”
A further increase in the key rate on Wednesday would hurt Quebec families who would pay more for their mortgages and loans, lamented PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
He therefore asks Mr. Legault to do like Doug Ford, from Ontario, and David Eby, from British Columbia.
In a letter to Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem on Sunday, the Ontario Premier said successive rate hikes have made home buying impossible for young people, newcomers and first-time buyers.
Mr. Ford is urging the governor to consider the effects of high rates for ordinary people who are struggling to make ends meet.
Mr. Eby maintains that a further increase in the key rate could worsen inflation.
The Bank of Canada has been raising its key rate for a little over a year in order to slow inflation. Canadian banks follow the decisions of the central bank and then align their various rates according to the key rate.
Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press
