According to the February data, total Canadian gold reserves stood at 1.7 tonnes. That was just 0.1 per cent of the country's total reserves, which also include foreign currency deposits and bonds. 

As we noted, the decision to sell came from Finance Minister Bill Morneau's office.

"Canada's gold reserves belong to the Government of Canada, and are held under the name of the Minister of Finance," explained a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. "Decisions relative to gold holdings are taken by the Minister of Finance."
Reached by Global News on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the finance department said the sale "was done in the normal course of business for the government. The decision to sell the gold was not tied to a specific gold price, and sales are being conducted over a long period and in a controlled manner."

This latest sell-off is indeed part of a much longer-term pattern of moving away from gold as a government-held asset. According to economist Ian Lee of the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Ottawa has no real reason to keep its gold reserves other than adhering to tradition.

"Under the old system, (gold) backed up currencies," Lee explained. "The U.S. dollar was tied to gold. One ounce was worth US$35. Then in 1971, for lots of reasons I won't get into, Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard."