inflation at, or near, the target. but for the bank to be fully accountable, we must not only communicate the information that the public needs to understand our policy objective and our progress in meeting that objective, but also the challenges that arise in the economic environment and the factors that we take into account in making decisions. communicating all this information has become one of the bank ’ s chief activities. 2. the need to be strategic in our communications to communicate successfully, we need to be strategic. that requires an effective, proactive approach to communications. so we have to identify who our audiences are and what communication vehicles are most effective in reaching them. we aim for effective dialogue with the public, the media, the markets, and other interested and influential constituencies. we want to further their understanding of monetary policy and foster public support for our goals and actions. at the same time, and equally important, we want to increase our understanding of the public ’ s views. this is clearly a continuous and iterative process. and the old communications principle, “ repeat, repeat, repeat, ” is entirely appropriate. by repeating our fundamental messages about the framework we use to conduct policy and about our policy goals and why they are important, we are increasing the odds that these messages will take hold in the public consciousness and resonate in shaping behaviour. through all our communications, we are providing the opportunity for public critique of our economic analysis, by economists, financial market players, journalists and reporters, politicians, and the public more broadly. this is constructive. engaging the public in the issues is important in broadening awareness and understanding of monetary policy. let me be a little more specific about this. as i have already noted, expectations play a critical role in the conduct of monetary policy. first and foremost, we want to anchor expectations about future inflation to our 2 per cent target. financial market expectations about future policy actions are also important to us. market expectations get reflected in medium - and longer - term interest rates, as well as prices of other financial assets, and these financial prices make up part of the overall financial conditions in the economy. we therefore pay close attention to market expectations, and indeed look to financial markets to get an independent view of the expected future path of interest rates. bank staff, in our trading room and in our regional offices, are in regular contact with market dealers and investors in key financial centres, including toronto, montreal, new york, and elsewhere around the world. we also apply analytic techniques

to extract from asset prices the views of market participants about the future path of interest rates. we look at interest rate futures, expectations implicit in the term structure of interest rates, and markets for instruments such as bankers ’ acceptances, term repos, and treasury bills. this involves assessment about relevant term, risk, and liquidity premiums. in this way, we keep our finger on the pulse of the market, on its interpretation of our decisions and statements, and on its views as to where policy interest rates are headed. we also stay on top of published economic analyses and commentaries from financial institutions. and we review the surveys of economists ’ and market participants ’ expectations for interest rates that are published by the major wire services. all of this information, together with other economic and financial analysis, feeds into the bank ’ s deliberations leading to our interest rate decisions and then into the messages we communicate about the decision to the public. if the iterative process and the two - way communication that i have just described work as they should, the views of the bank and the markets should be broadly consistent. and this should help create an environment in which positive economic outcomes are achieved in an efficient manner. the bank of canada ’ s communications strategy is based on reaching our target audiences through a schedule of key publications and communications events throughout the year. this gives us a regular, continuous, and integrated program of communication with the public. it permits us to communicate our evolving views on the economy and the trend of inflation on a regular basis through the course of the year. these communications events include eight scheduled policy interest rate announcements, when we issue a press release, publication of our semi - annual monetary policy report in april and october, updates to the report in january and july, frequent speeches by the governor and other governing council members, public appearances before parliamentary committees, press conferences, and other media events and interviews. and a recent initiative has been to publish our regional office business outlook survey, which summarizes business and industry views on their outlook for the economy and inflation. from the bank ’ s perspective, we are encouraged by the progress we are making in engaging public interest in economic and monetary policy issues. the quantity and quality of media coverage of the bank - both electronic and print - has increased markedly in recent years, especially since the adoption of a fixed schedule of regular dates for announcing policy interest rates. the c. d. howe institute ’ s creation of a shadow monetary policy council last year to provide