Bank of Canada says will work with Indigenous groups to create inclusive economy

OTTAWA, Nov 29, Reuters - The Bank of Canada will work with Indigenous groups to understand the wounds caused by decades of discrimination and determine how reconciliation can create a more inclusive and prosperous economy for all, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Monday.

Macklem, who opened a symposium on Indigenous economies, said Canadians could work to correct some of the consequences of those ugly periods. Ottawa forcibly removed thousands of Indigenous children from their communities and put them in residential schools in an effort to strip them of their language and culture, a practice that continues to scar families and individuals.

Macklem said that the Bank of Canada will work with a broad range of Indigenous groups to figure out what reconciliation means for what we do.

He said that reconciliation will be used to define what reconciliation means for the Bank of Canada's work to create a more inclusive and prosperous economy for everyone.

In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called the residential school system a cultural genocide and set out 94 calls to action to restore Canada's relationship with its Indigenous people, including economic reconciliation.

We can't go back and change what happened. Macklem said that it is the central bank's job to create conditions for opportunity for all Canadians and that they can try to correct some of the consequences.

We have a responsibility to take concrete steps toward economic reconciliation. It's incumbent on us to take the time to do this well, said Macklem.