Bank of Canada left its policy rate on hold at 0.5%

The Bank of Canada decided to hold its overnight lending rate steady today at 0.5%, as widely expected. Many were expecting the Bank to sound slightly more upbeat (or at least less downbeat) on the outlook, and that was mostly the case in the text. 

However, the Bank cut its growth outlook for each of the next two years (to 2.0% from 2.3% in 2016 and to 2.5% from 2.6% for 2017), and slightly pushed out the timing of when the output gap will close to mid-2017.

It's important to note that their economic forecast assumes fiscal policy as it is now configured, and would make no allowances for the hefty spending proposed by the incoming federal government.