Bank of Canada Announces Appointment of Special Adviser

Professor John Chant of Simon Fraser University has been chosen to fill the visiting economist position of Special Adviser in the Bank of Canada for a one-year term beginning in September 2001.

This position was created to bring to the Bank of Canada additional views on monetary policy issues and to increase the number of university and private sector economists with first-hand knowledge of the institution and its monetary policy role. The previous Special Advisers were Professor David Laidler of the University of Western Ontario, Professor Daniel Racette of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales and Professor Angela Redish of the University of British Columbia.

Professor Chant graduated with a BA from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from Duke University and taught at the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Queen's University and Carleton University, before going in 1979 to Simon Fraser University, where he is currently Chair of the Department of Economics.

Professor Chant has written widely on topics such as the activities of the Bank of Canada, the theory of financial intermediation and the regulation of financial institutions. He served as the Director of the Financial Markets Study Group at the Economic Council of Canada and, most recently, as Research Director of the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector (the MacKay task force). Professor Chant has also appeared a number of times before Parliamentary Committees reviewing financial legislation and reforms.