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POLOZ ON SIGNS OF ECONOMIC STRENGTH

“It’s important piece of the setting when we talk about these risks, that the economy has shown more signs of strength in recent months, and that we still have questions around sustainability and what risks we face on the macro front.”

POLOZ ON BANK ACTIONS AND OIL SHOCK

“It does appear that the actions that we took in 2015 have done a good job to facilitate the economy’s adjustment to that shock. That’s encouraging.”

WILKINS ON CAUSES OF U.S. CREDIT CRISIS, CONTRAST TO CANADA

“It is important to look at the U.S. experience and see to what extent there are similarities and differences and I think when you see house prices where they are and you see indebtedness it is quite tempting to draw parallels and at the same time when you understand what really led to the severity of the financial stress in the U.S., which was actually quite global in 2008 and 2009, it was related to a number of factors that are not present in Canada.

“And one of them is just the underwriting standards in Canada are high and they are effectively enforced. We are not seeing the kind of ninja loans, if you remember those, just as an example, you look at delinquency rates, they are historically low, they still are.

“I think really importantly is just the difference in laws, lenders in Canada have recourse to other household assets. It is not always the case in the U.S., and that changes the recovery rates for institutions if there is a problem but it also means that households have greater incentives to hang on and not walk away.”