(Bloomberg) -- Governor Tiff Macklem announced plans to reorganize the Bank of Canada’s governance structure by adding a second outsider to its main policy-making body, expanding the number of officials involved in setting interest rates.
The Ottawa-based central bank plans to increase the size of its governing council to seven from six by creating another external deputy governor position. Nicolas Vincent — who was the first to take one of these part-time, shorter-duration contracts — will also have his term extended to March 2026.
Vincent’s work since his appointment last year has “demonstrated the value of including an external point of view in the conduct of monetary policy,” Macklem said in a statement Thursday. “As the Bank navigates an increasingly complex and fast-changing economy, the creation of a second external Governing Council role will add further perspective and bring different skills and experiences to the table.”
The creation of the two external deputy governor positions marks one of the more significant changes in years to the structure of the governing council, which sets the benchmark overnight rate eight times a year. The Bank of Canada has already launched the recruitment process for the second position.
The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have no external members in charge of monetary policy. The Bank of England has four.
--With assistance from Jay Zhao-Murray.
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