This will put a bit more pressure on the BOC to hike at their next meeting on April 18. Key will be March employment data.
The BOC is walking a knife's edge on monetary policy. On one hand, inflation is (slowly) rising and they would be prudent to get ahead of that but on the other hand there is the mountain (oceans?) of consumer, corporate and government debt largely fueled by the low interest rate policies of the BOC themselves. We all knew that this time was coming...the central bankers created this scenario, let's see how they deal with it. This year will be very interesting on the interest rate front if CPI and employment trend above expectations....and in the US as well.
"Consumer prices accelerated to an annual pace of 2.2 percent in February from 1.7 percent a month earlier, the fastest pace since 2014, Statistics Canada said Friday from Ottawa. Economists had anticipated a 1.9 percent increase. Core prices - - which exclude more volatile items like energy and are considered a gauge of inflation pressures -- inched higher for a fifth month to 2.03 percent, which is the fastest since 2012. "
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-23/canada-inflation-accelerates-to-fastest-pace-in-three-years