Despite the market pressuring the Bank of Canada to begin liftoff and start hiking interest rates, they held firm once again this past week. The bank flagged the recent floods in BC and the emergence of the Omicron variant as air cover to stand pat. Per the official release,  “the Governing Council judges that in view of ongoing excess capacity, the economy continues to require considerable monetary policy support. We remain committed to holding the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2 percent inflation target is sustainably achieved. In the Bank’s October projection, this happens sometime in the middle quarters of 2022.” In a follow up speech several days later, deputy governor at the Bank of Canada, Toni Gravelle, blamed supply chain bottlenecks as the root cause for stubbornly high inflation, suggesting these will eventually resolve themselves. There are a couple important takeaways here. First off, let’s be clear, the Bank of Canada has no desire to raise rates. They are delaying as long as possible, trying to find any excuse to keep rates glued to the floor. The emergence of the Omicron variant is likely to provide adequate air