At 8:46 a.m. ET (1246 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.3488 to the greenback, or 74.14 US cents, slightly stronger than Wednesday's close of C$1.3480, or 74.18 US cents.

It was trading in a tight range between C$1.3462 and C$1.3495, after changing hands in the C$1.33 range earlier in the week.

Oil prices regained some ground as leading Gulf oil producers signaled a likely extension of OPEC-led supply cuts beyond the middle of the year.

The province of Ontario is set to announce a series of measures including a 15-percent non-resident foreign buyers tax on property purchases to rein in runaway housing prices, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) News reported.

Investors are also awaiting inflation data due at 8:30 a.m. on Friday for further signs that the country's economy is picking up. Economists polled by Reuters expect consumer prices to have risen 0.4 percent in March, up from 0.2 percent in February.

Canadian government bond prices were lower across the maturity curve, with the two-year price down 3.4 Canadian cents to yield 0.742 percent and the benchmark 10-year off 19 Canadian cents to yield 1.488 percent.

The Canada-US two-year bond spread was slightly narrower at -45.5 basis points, while the 10-year spread was also tighter at -75.1 basis points.