stephen s poloz : canada at 150 – it takes a world to raise a nation remarks by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, at the 50th anniversary of durham college, oshawa, ontario, 28 march 2017. * * * it is a real pleasure for me to be back in my home town of oshawa, particularly given that durham college reaches its 50th anniversary this year. from 205 students in 1967, durham has flourished. the college developed partnerships with both trent and york universities and added the university of ontario institute of technology as an educational partner on campus. today, durham college has well over 50, 000 alumni. as we all know, canada, too, is hitting a big milestone this year — 150 years of confederation. let me ask you this : where in the world would you rather live? over the past 150 years — not long by global standards — canada has progressed to become one of the wealthiest and happiest countries in the world. the average income, adjusted for inflation, is about 20 times higher today than it was at confederation. it is worth thinking about how this progress arose. essentially, canada ’ s economic growth up to around the end of the second world war depended primarily on exploiting our natural resources. to accomplish this, we needed three things : foreign investment, immigration and access to foreign markets. of course, being open to the world also meant that canada would be affected by global events, including policies in other countries, and this occasionally caused us to question our commitment to openness. but over time, the evidence leads to a clear conclusion : canada fares better when we are open. today, i want to illustrate this by looking at six episodes in our history and talk about how our willingness to be open to trade, investment and people has ebbed and flowed over the years. our economic story the economic benefits of international trade have been understood for about 200 years. but trade itself has been going on throughout history, including here in north america. at numerous sites, such as the junction of the gatineau and ottawa rivers near what is now parliament hill, evidence of trading stretches back centuries. goods — and better methods of producing them — spread via trade among first nations — such as the mississaugas of scugog island, on whose traditional territories durham college sits. trade grew even more following the arrival of europeans. the colonial powers of britain and france had a strong interest in canada ’ s natural resources. trade

stephen s poloz : release of the monetary policy report opening statement by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, at the press conference following the release of the monetary policy report, ottawa, ontario, 15 july 2015. * * * good morning. senior deputy governor wilkins and i are happy to be here with you again to answer your questions about today ’ s interest rate announcement, and our latest monetary policy report ( mpr ). let me begin with a few remarks around the issues that were most important to the governing council ’ s deliberations. since our last mpr in april, global economic developments have been quite disappointing, and these have led to a significant downgrade of our estimate of canadian economic growth for 2015. there were three factors behind this downgrade : first, canadian oil producers have lowered their long - term outlook for global oil prices, and have cut their plans for investment spending significantly more than previously announced. second, china ’ s economy is undergoing a structural transition to slower, domestic - driven growth, which is reducing canadian exports of a range of other commodities. third, canada ’ s non - resource exports have also faltered in recent months. while this is partly due to the first - quarter setback in the u. s. economy, it ’ s still a puzzle that merits further study. given the collapse in oil prices, and declines in some other key non - energy commodities, the economy is now operating on two distinct growth tracks : the resource track and the nonresource track. these tracks are not independent – the cancellation of an investment in the oil patch will often lead to a hit in the manufacturing sector, for example. but we can do some rough decompositions to illustrate the situation. i draw your attention to chart 18, on page 19 of the mpr. there we can see the sharp drop in oil and gas output, which constitutes 10 per cent of our economy, and the slowdown in non - energy commodity production, which represents a further 8 per cent. the remaining 82 per cent is seeing steady growth, although it has moderated slightly so far this year, due to the setback in the u. s and spillovers from the resource sector. as the non - resource track regains momentum, it is expected to become the dominant trend at the aggregate level. we expected this to begin in the second quarter. but it did not, because of the three factors i listed above. a major shift in a country ’