mr thiessen ’ s statement on the bank of canada ’ s monetary policy report opening statement of the governor of the bank of canada, mr gordon thiessen, before the standing committee on finance of the house of commons on 26 may 1999. it is always a pleasure to appear before your committee following the publication of our monetary policy report. we released our ninth report last wednesday. the bank of canada began publishing these reports on a semiannual basis four years ago, as part of our effort to increase the transparency and accountability of the bank ’ s conduct of monetary policy. the main focus of every monetary policy report is how well canada is doing in managing inflation. but controlling inflation is not an end in itself. the objective of monetary policy is to help create and maintain a monetary climate that favours good economic performance, an economy where growth and employment are strong and canadians feel prosperous. the bank feels strongly that the best thing that monetary policy can do to help long - term growth in the economy is to preserve low and stable inflation. indeed, i believe the low and stable inflation rate we have had in canada in recent years has helped us through some difficult times. however, i am also happy to report that the global financial system is much more stable than it was at the time of my last appearance before you six months ago. the shock from the financial crisis in southeast asia, which began almost two years ago, was compounded last august by russia ’ s default on its external debt. the turbulence that followed has now largely subsided and investor confidence is being restored. as a result, the outlook for the world economy has become more positive than it was last november. financial markets have steadied in southeast asia, and prospects are good for a gradual recovery there. in brazil the authorities have taken major steps to address their difficulties. overall, global financial markets now seem better able to assess risk. interest rate cuts by central banks in all major countries have helped restore investor confidence. most importantly for canada, the us economy has continued to outperform expectations with strong growth and, as yet, no definitive sign of inflation pressure. nonetheless, there is still a fair degree of uncertainty about the overall external environment, given the divergent performance of the major economies. japan is still in recession and europe has been slowing down. because of this, we are expecting only a slow recovery in world commodity prices this year. in canada, the recent driving force in our economy has been exports. the strong demand in

- operation and development social, employment and migration working paper no. 255 ( january 2021 ). 3 statistics canada, “ canadian survey on business conditions, ” the daily ( november 2020 ). - 7less and recovered by more than postings for other types of positions. 4 by this measure, job postings for workers with digital skills are now well above prepandemic levels ( chart 4 ). at the same time, some of the jobs that have been lost during the pandemic will not return. and the workers who have already borne the brunt of the pandemic may be especially affected. many low - wage jobs have a high potential of being automated. and some jobs that are disproportionally held by women and youth, such as retail salesperson and cashier, are also the kinds of jobs where the pandemic has accelerated structural change. we know that restructuring would be underway even without the pandemic. in the long run, the forces of digitalization and automation will be positive for the labour market, creating more flexibility and increasing productivity and wages. but in the near term, these forces will do little to help the people who have been most affected by the pandemic. 5 and as long as some groups are struggling, we won ’ t secure a complete, shared economic recovery. policy implications the stakes are high for everyone. we have seen a sharp rise in long - term unemployment. and people who go for a long time without a job can become discouraged and stop looking for work altogether. economists call this labourmarket scarring. 4 digital - oriented jobs are linked to the production of digital technologies and include software development, electrical engineering, information design and documentation, and information technology operations and helpdesk. 5 p. baylis, p. - l. beauregard, m. connolly, n. fortin, d. a. green, p. gutierrez cubillos, s. gyetvay, c. haeck, t. l. molnar, g. simard - duplain, h. e. siu, m. tenyenhuis and c. warman, “ the distribution of covid - 19 related risks, ” national bureau of economic research working paper no. 27881 ( october 2020 ). - 8labour - market scarring can set people ’ s careers back by years and severely limit their lifetime earnings. scarring also reduces the potential output of