The Bank of Canada has raised its key interest rate by point five per cent. This is the highest amount in more than 20 years. The bank also warned more rate hikes are coming as it increased its outlook for inflation. 

On April 13, the central bank hiked its policy interest rate by half a percentage point, bringing it to one per cent. 

Airdrie-Banff Member of Parliament (MP), Blake Richards, says increases like this one won’t come without its impacts. 

“When you've got rate increases like this, it's going to have an impact on a lot of things. Probably the biggest is our mortgage on our home. We're already seeing huge increases in housing prices.” 

Richards says many people might be looking to get into their first home, and this won’t help. 

“The more you see rate increases, the more you're going to see the mortgage rate increase, and the more difficult it gets for people to actually have that opportunity. It will have some pretty massive impacts, there's no doubt.” 

Richards says inflation was one of the reasons for the increase. 

“The cause of the inflation is all the money the government spent. That's squarely on Justin Trudeau’s shoulders. We're seeing inflation driving up the cost of everything that we need, especially our essentials.” 

Richards says Trudeau is making life more expensive and less affordable for all Canadians and says “it's about time this government gets responsible with the way they manage their finances.” 

The last time the central bank raised its key interest rate by half a percentage point was in May 2000. 

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