CBCnews

Penny for your thoughts, guv

The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney has reluctantly added his voice to the great debate over the future of the Canadian penny.

NDP MP Pat Martin is sponsoring a private member's bill to eliminate the penny. But the government's response has been that eliminating the one cent coin is not on its agenda.

Still, before the finance committee today, the new governor was asked for his thoughts.

Carney at first tried to avoid the subject. He said the fate of the penny doesn't fall under the Bank of Canada's purview. But he then went on to say the bank has done research on the subject and found that the elimination of the penny would have neither an inflationary nor a disinflationary effect on the economy.

The Bank of Canada's stated policy is to maintain inflation at or below a two per cent increase.