Canadian dollar sliding alongside oil, Poloz spoke to the FT.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said the central bank still has many options to boost the economy if soft oil prices continue to weigh. He touched on rate cuts, forward guidance and even quantitative easing.

The mighty beaver

The bevy of instruments is a reminder about how much lower the BOC could drive the Canadian dollar if it were so inclined. Poloz focused on the oil price shock for most of the interview.

"When the oil shock came, it was clear we would no longer be able to close the output gap by 2016, but by 2017," the governor said during an interview. "Since we had some firepower, we took some insurance and cut rates."

He also continued to warn about a weak first quarter (January GDP is due this week).

"The first quarter of 2015 will look atrocious, because the oil shock is a big deal for us," he said, adding that capital expenditure could fall by as much as 10 per cent as a result of energy companies cutting back on investment.

WTI crude oil prices are down 35-cents to $48.53 to start the week. The focus at the moment are the nuclear negotiations with Iran. A ahead of the self-imposed March 31 deadline would further weigh on prices.

On the flipside, he's upbeat about the outlook for exports due to the soft Canadian dollar.

"Now that the Canadian Dollar has depreciated and US investment is starting to fire on all cylinders, we are reasonably confident the export side will recover," he said.

"The manufacturing sector is turning around nicely. We were losing a lot of the auto parts manufacturing to Mexico. That calculus has shifted," he added.

Executives most bearish since 2009

Another factor is the latest quarterly C-suite survey published on Monday. Almost 40% of the executives surveyed said they expect the economy to decline in the next year, a sharp increase from 23% in December.

On the BOC, 51% or survey respondents support an additional 25 basis point cut, while 44 per cent oppose it.

Poloz has made the case for using more survey-based measures of the economy so traders should look toward similar surveys.