Low-dollar policy hurting us

Re Benchmark interest rate unchanged, Dec. 3

Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is still acting as if he is head of Export Development Canada. Since taking his new position, he has promoted a lower Canadian dollar as the solution to our slowing economy. He says it will encourage exports, which will in turn, increase jobs in manufacturing and stimulate investment in new plants, equipment and innovation. It is not working.

Although there has been a modest increase in exports, exporters are simply pocketing the increased revenue and there has been no trickle-down effect — a phenomenon our previous Bank of Canada governor acknowledged before departing for Britain.

In fact, the weak Canadian dollar is harming, not helping, Canadians as core prices have increased, since the weaker dollar makes imports of such things as food more expensive.

It is time for Mr. Poloz to abandon his low-dollar strategy and to encourage Canadian manufacturers to discard the crutch of a low dollar, release their cash reserves and make investments in R&D and innovation to compete in a global economy. Greg Sheehan, Mississauga

While keeping its key interest rate between banks at a historic low level of 0.5 per cent, Bank of Canada’s policy makers said that the economic recovery is unfolding as expected as it undergoes a “lengthy adjustment.” As usual they didn’t spare a word, or at least a point, for the many forgotten victims of low-interest-rate policies, namely those who have followed the advice of generations of governors and economists to save money in bank accounts.

Now the interest paid by those accounts is laughable, or rather cryable, and those who expected a decent return for their savings in retirement years are seeing their plight ignored. Jaime Oksemberg, Toronto