Tiff Macklem is a man so cautious that he looks before and after he leaps.

The Bank of Canada governor is allergic to politics and has refused to bite when asked whether the Liberal government’s expansive fiscal policy has aggravated inflation.

All of which makes it more surprising that as part of its announcement to lower the policy rate from 4.75 per cent to 4.5 per cent Wednesday, the Bank of Canada openly questioned the ability of the federal government to deliver on its pledge to reduce over the next three years the number of non-permanent residents (NPRs) in Canada to five per cent of the population, from the 6.8 per cent that resided here in March.