MNI BRIEF: Freeland Says Being Careful With CMB Review
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland sought to assure investors Tuesday the Canada Mortgage Bond program will get a careful review before any decision to merge those sales into regular government borrowing.
“I do want to assure all Canadians and maybe more specifically market participants, that this is something that we are doing very deliberately, very thoughtfully,” she said in response to a question from MNI at a press conference in Ottawa. “We have undertaken the first stage of that consultation and are now reviewing the submissions that we have received.”
The CAD260 billion program could be wound down as soon as next April following the review, and an update on the program is expected around Freeland's fall fiscal update. (See: MNI: Canada Warned Ending Mortgage Bonds Could Be Costly and MNI: Canada Could Earn CAD800M/Yr Ending Mortgage Bonds-Memo)