Simulating Bank staff, five students from the uOttawa Governor’s Challenge team delivered a tightly crafted monetary policy proposal to a panel of expert judges from the Bank on November 13th, 2025. The following week the exciting news arrived: they would be moving on to the finals.
The competition operates as part of the course ECO4195: The Art and Science of Monetary Policy-Making in Canada. This year, 13 students participated under the guidance of founding professor Lilia Karnizova. Over the course of the semester, the team immersed themselves in monetary policy theory, economic data, and tracked developments at home and abroad. They honed their communication skills via coaching and exercises, culminating in their presentation to the Bank of Canada. “The competition’s rich environment gives students a preview of the challenges their degrees are designed to tackle,” observes Interim FSS Dean Nathan Young.
Each year, the professor and team work together to select presenters to represent the group’s work. This year's presenters were Declan Green, Mimi Moyo, Rochelle Larivière, Divine Rubayiza, and Can Ayas.
The Governor’s Challenge is always an intense experience: extensive modelling and testing, exhaustive research, all while searching for ways to break new ground. Chair of the Economics Department Catherine Deri Armstrong adds, “Students leave the program with a firsthand sense of the challenges and opportunities in the field.”
With the slideshow due well ahead of the presentation, students spent late nights hopping onto calls, updating slides, and making real-time edits right down to the wire. “You’re never finished, you just run out of time,” says presentation coach Mike Heffernan. From that moment forward the team rehearsed tirelessly with the support of guest advisors. Each round of feedback was followed by revisions to the narrative. When questioned on their experience, the team unanimously agreed that collecting all their research into a single, cohesive storyline was the most challenging part of the process. As Lilia Karnizova explains, “Anyone can throw in macro data and go through their description, but all the pieces must fit together for the analysis to be compelling.”
The finals will be hosted in-person at the Bank on January 31, 2026. This milestone provides a special opportunity for the University of Ottawa following their first national victory last year.
Could this mark the start of a winning streak?