A Pierre Poilievre government would scrap the Bank of Canada’s proposed Central Bank Digital Currency and audit the organization’s $400 billion quantitative easing program to find out why it missed the mark on inflation..“Justin Trudeau has threatened the Bank of Canada’s independence with a half-trillion dollars of deficits that required the central bank to print money and cause inflation,” Poilievre said at a press conference in front of the Bank of Canada on Thursday..“I will end it, by restoring central bank independence, mandating an independent audit of all the money printing, and stopping the risky Central Bank Digital Currency.”.If elected as prime minister, Poilievre would reject any proposal for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDG) and pass a law banning one from being implemented. The Bank of Canada (BOC) has indicated it is in the “development phase” of its own digital currency, but the minister of finance will make the final determination..The MP for Carleton, Ontario questioned the use of a CBDC since Canada already has the dollar as a central bank currency that people store in the digital bank accounts used for digital transactions, such as PayPal, email transfers and debit/credit cards..A CBDC would also give the BOC the “incredible advantage” of creating money to pay more attractive.interest rates than private-sector competitors could match, according to Poilievre. He added that the BOC would cause runaway inflation by.handing out cash to millions of customers, while also forcing customers to “move from commercial banks to central banks to acquire that money.”.Another concern Poilievre has is that politicians would make election promises of more generous interest rates for depositors or other benefits while using its power to “pick and choose winners and losers,” with CBDC regulations supporting or opposing certain industries, provinces, or voter groups..“These combined risks far outweigh the potential benefit of having the central bank provide a digital token that would be little better than the digital banking services the private sector already offers,” Poilievre said..Poilievre said he would also empower the Auditor General to examine the BOC’s balance sheet and transactions. This would be done in order to determine whether the Liberal government interfered with the BOC’s independence by using $400 billion of newly-printed money to fund its deficit spending..While the BOC has traditionally been “singularity focused on a stable rate of inflation,” Poilievre said the pandemic led the bank to accelerate its quantitative easing program to support the Liberal government’s deficit spending program, resulting in runaway inflation..A Poilievre government would adopt former Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s Bank of Canada Accountability Act, which would remove BOC’s exemption from the oversight of the Auditor General..“We need answers on why inflation is now triple the Bank’s 2% target,” Poilievre said..Matthew Horwood is the Parliamentary Bureau Chief of the Western Standard.mhorwood@westernstandard.news.Twitter.com/@Matt_HorwoodWS
