MNI BRIEF: Lawmakers Signal Tough Hearing For BOC's Macklem

Canadian lawmakers appear to be putting central bank chief Tiff Macklem in the hot seat, scheduling an extra hour of testimony to address the country's housing squeeze on top of the usual discussion of the BOC's regular policymaking.

The House of Commons finance committee's notice of the hearing for Oct. 30 at 330pm EST breaks the hearing into two parts. The first 90 minutes are "Report of the Bank of Canada on Monetary Policy" and Governors often appear once or twice a year to speak on some small variation of this theme. The last hour is "Policy Decisions and Market Forces that have led to Increases in the Cost of Buying or Renting a Home in Canada."

Opposition Conservative lawmakers have pledged to fire Tiff Macklem if they win an election due by 2025 and suggest his low interest rates during Covid underwrote the Liberal government's record deficits. Liberal-allied NDP lawmakers complain Macklem's rate hikes put home ownership out of reach and neglect what they call corporate "greedflation." Macklem held rates at the highest since 2001 this week and said he could be done if inflation is clearly moving back to his 2% target. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: BOC Can Wait On Rate Hike- UofT Researcher)