It may not be long considering this article. Although they do mention Canada may recover quicker.
Lending rate near zero
EVIN CARMICHAEL
Globe and Mail Update
March 3, 2009 at 11:20 AM EST
OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark lending rate to within spitting distance of zero, and signalled that it is prepared to increase the money supply to spark a rebound that policy makers acknowledged could be farther off than they first thought.
As most economists expected, the central bank cut its overnight lending rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 per cent, the lowest ever, prompting the country's biggest lenders to quickly match, dropping their prime rates to 2.5 per cent.
The surprise in Tuesday's statement was the declaration that Governor Mark Carney and his advisers on the governing council are preparing the ground for a program of “credit and quantitative easing.”
Such an effort would pump money into Canada's financial system by giving banks and others a new buyer for assets such as government bonds and corporate debt. The Bank of Canada's current credit-market programs are different because they only offer short-term loans, taking banks' paper assets as collateral.
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