The central bank lowered its key overnight rate Tuesday to 0.5 per cent — a record low — and many observers say the bank could even take the rate as low as it could go, to zero, in all all-out effort to make it cheaper and easier for commercial banks to lend money and spur economic growth.... "You can have the cheapest money in the world, but if people keep reading about the layoffs and falling housing prices, that takes away confidence and makes people much more cautious about borrowing, and leaves all the stimulus that you're trying to put in place basically on the sidelines," said Warren Jestin, chief economist at The Bank of Nova Scotia.

The Liberals have been spending the last 2 days in the House of Commons debating the budget bill, the legislation that, once passed, can trigger billions in new spending and tax cuts aimed at reviving the economy.
Last week, the NDP kicked the bill around the Commons finance committee.
The ...