(Bloomberg) -- Former Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has been made an officer of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s top honors.
Poloz was head of the central bank from June 2013 to June 2020. His seven-year term was bookended by two significant events that hit Canada’s economy hard — the plunge in oil prices in 2014 and the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the start of the Covid shock in 2020, Poloz cut the central bank’s policy interest rate to the emergency level of 0.25%, adding to the fiscal response of the federal government in a successful effort to prevent what many feared would be a prolonged, deep recession.
He also led the Bank of Canada’s first foray into quantitative easing, during which it purchased of hundreds of billions in government bonds to suppress interest rates.
“Some may suggest this is using a lot of firepower but I think a firefighter has never been criticized for using too much water,” he said at the time.
Yearly inflation averaged about 1.6% during his term, below the central bank’s 2% target. After leaving the role, he published a book, titled The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future. In April, Poloz was tapped by the federal government to examine ways to encourage Canadian pension plans to invest more in the country.
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