Historic inflation in Canada | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

The other day I pulled out some old statements from ING. I couldn't find the ones from 2000 on. The most recent one I found was Feb 1999. You could call me a packrat, but every so often such things are useful.
I'm trying to get some perspective on today's interest rates and the relationship with inflation rates.

In Feb 1999, ING was paying me 4.2% on a basic savings account, no promos or BS.

According to this inflatin chart, https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/canada-historical-inflation-rate/ , inflation that month was 0.7%, and for the entire year it did not exceed 2.6%.

In other words, a basic savings account at the kind of FI we like to discuss on this forum was paying significantly more than the rate of inflation.

In the past I did not have much trouble staying ahead of inflation and even taxes although tax rates are variable. But if you're getting interest at twice the rate of inflation or more, taxes and inflation need not be a concern.

Nowadays, with inflation around 6%, we are made to be grateful for much smaller crumbs well below inflation. Some of us get excited when a rate of any kind hits 3 or 4% while most 'high interest' savings accounts are paying around 1.5%.

I am very unwilling to settle for GICs that aren't EVEN keeping up with inflation since clearly they could in the past.

But I wonder what is causing this huge discrepancy and whether it is likely that it will ever go back to what it was and, if so, when. It feels like rates are being artificially held down, likely because of the cost of debt which is hard to manage, but that doesn't strike me as an adequate explanation.
My personal feeling about inflation is that it is here to stay, quite possibly for the rest of my olife, which may be shorter than yours.

Can anyone shed light in terms I can understand? Please don't talk in economists' jargon as I can't follow it. And pleaxe avoid political finger-pointing as that is not productive.

What would happen if we all went "on strike" and refused to buy five year GICs unless we got a decent rate? Norman1 assures me that a mortgage can't be issued without corresponding term deposit (although I doubt this as I've never heard of one being turned down for lack of matching GIC at that moment).
Why is it that everyone else gets to dictate their price and shrug their shoulders and say "it's inflation" but we can't? This seems to have been the case regardless of the amount of money out there as I've never heard of depositors doing this.

I agree; it's very difficult.
One thing that has come to my attention is that while we keep our money short, in HISA promos etc., bankers are using that to make profitable loans. One of he CU CEOs said as much recently at an AGM. If they keep their HISA rate attractive enough, we will stay there longer and it costs them a lot less than longer GICs. I don't know if this is a good way to run a FI but I can see how it impacts us. I guess it at least funds their variable rate loans.

I still intend to wait until end of year to decide unless something more pressing comes up. At worst, I would lose a bit if rates pull back, but i doubt they will so seems a good bet. If rates go to, for example, 5%, then 4% will still seem relatively good and much higher than January's 3 or 3.25
But I must admit I am not comfortable with locking money away right now at all. I just wish I had a better idea.