The Bank of Canada held interest rates at 5% for the fifth consecutive meeting. With inflation in January at around 2.86% within the BoC's target range of 1-3%, the BoC is in no hurry to hike rates however in light of broader global developments such as supply chain problems in the Middle East has decided not to cut rates but is signalling cuts in June are a possibility
Housing prices
Note: housing prices aren’t considered in the CPI
House prices in Canada are also a factor BoC governor Tiff Macklem should consider with housing prices beginning to rebound from the brief bubble pop in 2022, this is further fuelled by Canada's housing shortage. In February the Canadian government introduced a ban on foreign residents and enterprises (excepting students, refugee, and temporary workers) purchasing homes in Canada. However foreign ownership in 2021 was around 1.1% and is not expected to have grown greatly suggesting this move is more political rather than effective policy.
Canada's housing problem is simple, there just aren't enough houses, research by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp suggested that Canada needs to produce 3.5 million more deliverable housing units on top of what is already being produced by 2030 to make housing affordable again.