Foreign control in the Canadian economy, 2010

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In 2010, the value of assets, revenues and profits increased for both foreign and Canadian-controlled enterprises. The shares of foreign-controlled revenues and profits increased from 2009, while the share of assets under foreign control were unchanged.

Canadian-controlled asset values increased 5.7% in 2010, while foreign-controlled assets rose 5.4%. Foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for 19.7% of assets, unchanged from 2009.

Revenues of foreign-controlled enterprises increased 6.4% compared with a 5.7% increase for those under domestic control. As a result, the share of revenues under foreign control edged up from 28.8% to 28.9%.

Operating profits for foreign-controlled enterprises increased 39.3% in 2010, while those under Canadian control rose 21.8%. Consequently, the share of profits under foreign control increased from 20.2% to 22.5%. This was mostly attributable to the non-financial sector.

Non-financial industries

Among non-financial industries, the shares of assets under foreign control increased slightly to 26.7%, while the proportion of revenues under foreign control increased to 29.9%. The share of foreign-controlled profits rose from 20.2% to 24.2%.

Manufacturing remained the largest sector in terms of non-financial assets. It was also the sector with the biggest share of foreign-controlled assets, at 53.0% in 2010, down from 53.8%.

The value of assets for Canadian-controlled manufacturers rose 3.9%, while those under foreign control increased 0.7%.

The share of foreign-controlled manufacturing revenues declined from 50.5% to 48.9% as revenues for Canadian-controlled manufacturers increased at a faster pace than revenues for foreign enterprises.

In 2010, foreign manufacturers more than doubled their profits from the previous year. As a result, the share of manufacturing profits under foreign control rose from 33.6% to 40.5%. However, this was still below the range of 50% to 55% generally observed since 1999.

In the oil and gas extraction industry, the share of profits for foreign-controlled enterprises rose to 47.1% in 2010. This occurred as profits for foreign enterprises increased five times faster than they did for enterprises under Canadian control.

Finance and insurance industries

In the finance and insurance industries, foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for 13.1% of assets in 2010, down from 13.4% in 2009. Foreign enterprises held 19.8% of revenues, down from 20.6%, and 17.7% of operating profits, down from 20.4%.

Canadian-controlled assets among enterprises operating in the financial sector increased 6.0% in 2010, compared with a 3.5% increase in assets for enterprises under foreign control.

Revenues for foreign-controlled enterprises fell 1.2% in 2010, the third decline in a row, while revenues for Canadian-controlled enterprises rose 3.7%.

Financial sector operating profits increased in 2010 for both Canadian-controlled enterprises (+23.4%) and foreign-controlled enterprises (+3.6%).

Foreign control by country

American-controlled enterprises continued to dominate the shares of assets, revenues and profits under foreign-control.

These enterprises increased their share of assets to 52.5% in 2010. However, US-controlled shares of foreign revenues and profits dropped to 58.1% and 58.4%, respectively.

Enterprises controlled from the United Kingdom accounted for 13.0% of assets, down from 14.4%. They held 21.2% of foreign-controlled assets in the financial sector and 8.7% in the non-financial sector.

Dutch-controlled enterprises represented the third-largest share of foreign-controlled assets in 2010, at 7.1%. They held 9.9% of the assets under foreign control in the financial sector and 5.6% in the non-financial sector.

No other country has held more than 4.0% of foreign-controlled assets in the last several years.