Canadians should not blame the Liberals' "mismanagement” for the rising cost of living, the cabinet's representative in the Senate said..“The struggles Canadians are experiencing are real,” Senator Marc Gold (Que.) said yesterday. “They are not the function of this government’s mismanagement.”.The remarks came in a Senate Question Period exchange over food inflation rates currently running at an average 11%, the highest level since 1981..“In the real world we have something called accountability,” said Senator Leo Housakos (Que.)..“For this economic inflationary catastrophe that middle class and poor Canadians are going through, who are we going to hold responsible?” asked Housakos. “Clearly from your answer it’s everyone’s fault but the government’s.”.“Do we hold the Bank of Canada responsible?” asked Housakos. “Do we ask them to resign? Do we blame the two Liberal finance ministers?”.Gold replied, “it is easy, facile, and dare I say hardly sober and serious, the need to blame someone for something that is much more complex."."It may be satisfying and it may work well on Twitter clips, but it is not a proper and dare I say responsible way to help Canadians understand.”.The Bank of Canada cautioned inflation and interest rates will remain above pre-pandemic levels until 2024..“We think it takes about two years,” Paul Beaudry, deputy bank governor said in a September 20 lecture to University of Waterloo students. The Bank of Canada has a mandate of keeping inflation under 2%..“Is there consideration where it might be over-tightening the economy and it might cause a recession?” asked a student..“It’s certainly too early to call,” replied Beaudry..“It depends on what we expect inflation to be, because if you’re a business and you’re deciding what price should you set, you’re setting prices now — and you don’t tend to change prices all the time — you’re setting prices depending on how you think everyone else is going to set prices, and that’s your expectation of inflation,” said Beaudry..“If everyone starts believing inflation is going to go on at 7% without stop for many years then it becomes self-fulfilling,” said Beaudry. “That will play by itself.”.“Now that people are starting to expect it there you get worried,” said Beaudry. “We have those inflation expectations that are out there and that’s the part that you get worried.”.Statistics Canada’s benchmark Consumer Price Index is currently running at 7%. An update is due October 19.
