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The market is currently pricing in a roughly even chance that the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates further to 0.25 per cent next week. While Porter recently made a call that the bank would cut rates at the meeting, he noted Monday that the loonie’s collapse could be the one reason that would keep the bank on the sidelines this week.

Marion said that in order to help create some stability for the loonie, the Bank of Canada should not cut interest rates this week. Doing so would risk sending the currency as low as 66 cents in the near-term, he said.

That would bring the loonie within a stone’s throw of its lowest rate to date against the U.S. dollar of 62.70 cents, a mark achieved in 2002 when Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister and David Dodge was Bank of Canada governor.

“In our view, the Bank of Canada would be better to keep its powder dry this month and act, if need be, after the next federal budget when it will be better able to assess fiscal support to the economy,” Marion said.

While the loonie’s rapid decline is unsettling, Peter Hall, chief economist of Export Development Canada, sees no reason for the Bank of Canada to act because of it. He notes that any negative effects on business confidence are likely temporary.

He also said the export advantages of a low loonie take years to fully filter into the economy, and those advantages will start showing themselves in the upcoming year, helping ease any currency worries.

“The impact of a lower Canadian currency aren’t felt right away,” he said in an interview. “But when companies become convinced that this is more or less a permanent thing — that they can count on the Canadian dollar much lower than parity —then they’ll start to invest based on that.”

“From the moment the currency started tumbling in 2014, we’ve seen some investing coming on stream, but it takes time,” he added. “We think that’s going to be a 2016 story — companies taking advantage of the currency advantage that we have.”