We knew it was coming. The Bank of Canada increased the Bank of Canada rate by another 1/2% this week, and this will push the prime lending rate at Canadian Banks from 5.45% to 5.95% and that will directly affect those home owners with variable rate mortgages and secured lines of credit. We will have to wait a couple of days to see if the bond market follows and that could push fixed rate mortgages even higher. Between now and the end of the year, The Bank of Canada has one additionally scheduled rate announcement and it is widely believed that the next announcement could bring another 1/2 to 3/5% increase. These increases are intended to slow down inflation and that could take up to a year for us to see whether these increases have done the job.
