More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate on hold Wednesday, but warned higher interest rates are coming to help it reel in inflation from its hottest pace in three decades.
The central bank lined up to kick off what is expected be a series of rate hikes this year starting as early as March as it dropped its forward guidance that it would keep its key policy rate at its rock-bottom level of 0.25 per cent where it has been since March 2020 during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bank of Canada said indicators now suggest the economy is running at capacity, including a labour market that is by most standards back at pre-pandemic levels, with growth over the last few months stronger than senior decision-makers anticipated.
The rebound is why the bank will no longer promise to keep its key policy rate at what it calls the effective lower bound, as governor Tiff Macklem said rates need to rise to cool inflation back down to the central bank's two per cent target.
He pointed to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant as an economic "wild card" at home and abroad to explain why the bank held off on hiking rates Wednesday.
What will follow is a path of rate increases and potential pauses to gauge impacts.
"How far and how fast -- those are decisions we will take at each meeting, depending on economic developments, depending on our outlook for inflation, and what we judge is needed to bring inflation back to target," Macklem told reporters.
The bank's next scheduled rate call is in five weeks, setting up March as a month of monetary tightening on both sides of the border after the U.S. Federal Reserve also said Wednesday that rate hikes will soon be needed.
"The fact that the Bank of Canada exercised a bit of patience today, to me suggests that they are going to move somewhat more gradually than the market is anticipating," said RBC senior economist Josh Nye, who expects four rate increases this year.
The Bank of Canada waiting until March for a first hike will have minimal impacts on the economy and inflation, said Royce Mendes, managing director and head of macro strategy at Desjardins.
Hiking on Wednesday without warning, after having in December said no to a rate increase until at least April, would have dealt a larger blow to the Bank of Canada's credibility, Mendes said.
"That is a safer way to operate than rushing a rate hike," he said.
The Bank of Canada warned in its updated economic outlook that consumers would continue to feel the pinch from faster price growth, particularly at the grocery store, with headline inflation likely to creep above five per cent for the first quarter before easing by the end of the year.
Inflation for 2022 is forecasted to clock in at 4.2 per cent, up from 3.4 per cent in the bank's October forecast, and faster than what the consumer price index registered for all of 2021.
The longer inflation rates stay high, the more likely Canadians will believe they will stay elevated over the long-term, which the Bank of Canada worries could lead to runaway price growth.
"Amid a strong recovery with robust demand, striking labour shortages, and inflation at 30-year high, a rate hike in March will be all but necessary to tame inflation and inflation expectations," said Tu Nguyen, an economist with accounting firm RSM Canada.
The central bank estimated the economy grew by 4.6 per cent in 2021, down half a percentage point from its previous forecast in October, and now projects growth in real gross domestic product in 2022 at four per cent, down from 4.3 per cent.
Part of the downgrade is due to governments cutting spending earlier than expected, and supply-chain issues that will have broader implications for economic activity and prices.
Carolyn Rogers, the bank's new second-in-command, said Omicron will also weigh on domestic growth, but the effects should be short-lived because of high vaccination rates and businesses learning to adapt to restrictions.
"If that proves to be true, we think an economic rebound is around the corner," said Rogers, the bank's senior deputy governor.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2022.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”