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Natural Resources Satellite Account, 2007 to 2015

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Released: 2016-10-21

Provisional estimates for the Natural Resources Satellite Account (NRSA), for the years 2007 to 2015, are now available.

The NRSA measures the importance of natural resources in the Canadian economy in terms of output, gross domestic product (GDP) and employment (number of jobs) among other economic variables. Estimates are directly comparable with national and provincial/territorial estimates of output, GDP and employment.

The NRSA defines natural resource activities as products and services originating from naturally occurring assets used in economic activity. These assets comprise mineral and energy resources, water, as well as natural timber, aquatic, and other natural biological resources. Resource assets may be renewable or non-renewable. They do not include intensively cultivated biological resources, such as crops and aquaculture. To provide a complete measure of the economic importance of the natural resource sector, the services required in the initial extraction and initial processing of natural resource inputs are in scope.

Based on this definition, provisional data indicate that natural resource activities accounted for 11.1% of Canadian GDP in 2015. This was equal to $206.0 billion in nominal terms.

When measured in real terms (adjusted for inflation), GDP of the natural resource sector in 2015 was down 0.7% from 2014, but was up 2.3% from 2007.

Given the importance of downstream activities in Canadian natural resource production, secondary and tertiary processing for the forestry, and mineral and mining subsectors are also identified in the NRSA. Downstream activities are presented separately from core natural resource activities, in accordance with international definitions.

Provisional results indicate that an additional 1.5% of Canadian GDP in 2015 was attributable to these downstream activities. This was equal to $28.2 billion in nominal terms. Together, core natural resource activities and downstream activities accounted for $234.2 billion in 2015. Excluding water, and aquatic and non-timber natural biological resources, natural resources activities totalled $225.5 billion, or 12.2% of Canadian GDP in 2015.

Measured in real terms, GDP of downstream activities in 2015 was up 2.6% from 2014, but down 12.4% from 2007.

Products

Additional information can be found in the article "The Natural Resources Satellite Account: Feasibility study," which is part of the Income and Expenditure Accounts Technical Series (Catalogue number13-604-M), now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website, under Publications.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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