A deputy governor with the Bank of Canada visited Central Alberta this week to gather input from local stakeholders about the economic situation facing Canadians.
Toni Gravelle was in the region from Oct. 8-10, meeting with numerous Central Alberta individuals, businesses and organizations, including a local carrot farm and Care for Newcomers.
"We do these bigger outreach sessions in medium to small communities to get a more on-the-ground sense of what's happening," Gravelle told the Advocate on the morning of Thursday, Oct 10.
The information gathered through these sessions complements bigger-picture economic data gathered through Statistics Canada.
"We have a more structured business outlook survey, which we do quarterly. It's set questions ... we ask a variety of businesses. These meetings complement that information — we can put more weight on certain parts of the survey and sometimes it allows us to adjust our survey," he said.
Gravelle noted that he heard both positive and negative sentiments from local stakeholders. He said one positive impressions was the high level of innovation within Central Alberta businesses, and how much money they are spending on capital and equipment to make themselves more productive.
"It was heartening to see," he said.
"We kind of knew the oil and gas sector is one of the more productive and innovative sectors in Canada. It's really clear they spend a lot of time adding technology to their day-to-day work and being more innovative in various ways. A lot of them in the area export their product across the world."
On the negative side of things, Gravelle heard business owners express how they feel they are facing more red tape.
"There's a sense that it's getting harder to do business," he said.
"Some businesses, not all, are still facing labour shortages, especially trades. Most industries around Red Deer are kind of highly specialized trades — mechanical and manufacturing. There's a sense of shortages, but a (positive thing) I've heard is that some of them are working with local colleges and polytechnics to help shape curriculum and help get more people into specific trades."
Sessions like this the trip into Central Alberta are also done to put a face to the Bank of Canada, Gravelle added.
"We really want to give more Canadians the opportunity to meet people from the Bank of Canada, and give them a sense of what we do and build some understanding, so the next time there's inflation they understand what we have to do — but hopefully there's no next time," he said.
"We need to understand the economy because we need to keep inflation under control. The central bank is very technocratic — we get a mandate from the government that says keep inflation at two per cent, plus or minus a per cent on both sides. ... But to do that, you need to understand how the economy is evolving and we need to be really good forecasters of the economy."
