Glossary – E

Canadian System of National Accounts glossary – E
Term Definition
Easter adjustment Removal of distortions from time series that are caused by the Easter holiday.
 
Ecodistrict A sub-component of an ecoregion characterized by distinctive assemblages of relief, geology, land forms and soils, vegetation, water, fauna, and land-use. There are 5,395 ecodistricts in Canada.

See also: Ecozone, Ecoregion
 
Economic activity An activity is a process, that is, the combination of actions that result in a certain set of products. One can distinguish between three types of economic activity. Principal activity: is identified by the top down method as the activity which contributes most to the total value-added of the entity under consideration. Secondary activity: is any other activity of the entity that produces goods or services. Ancillary activity: principal and secondary activities are generally carried out with the support of a number of ancillary activities, such as accounting, transportation, storage, purchasing, sales promotion, repair and maintenance, etc. Thus ancillary activities are those that exist solely to support the main productive activities of an entity by providing non-durable goods or services for the use of that entity.
 
Economically recoverable reserves Reserves of subsoil assets that can be recovered under current technological and economic conditions.
 
Economically significant prices Prices that have a significant effect on the amounts that producers are willing to supply and on the amounts purchasers wish to buy. These prices normally result when: a) the producer has an incentive to adjust supply either with the goal of making a profit in the long run or, at a minimum, covering capital and other costs; and b) consumers have the freedom to purchase or not purchase and make the choice on the basis of the prices charged.

See also: Non-market output
 
Component of: Market output, Output

Reference: Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods, Catalogue no. 15-547; Guide to the Public Sector of Canada, Catalogue no. 12-589

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 22.28

French: Prix économiquement significatifs
Economic flow Consists of transactions and other flows. The value of an asset or a liability may be affected by economic flows that do not satisfy the requirements of a transaction. Such flows are described as “other flows”. Examples are losses due to natural disasters and the effect of price changes on the value of assets and liabilities. Flows measure changes in economic value over a period of time. Stocks measure economic value at a point in time.

See also: Transaction, Canada's System of national economic accounts: an overview
 
Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 3.7

Notes: Introduced with the Canadian System of National Accounts 2012 historical revision.

French: Flux économiques
Economic growth The increase of an economy's real output or income over time. It is frequently expressed as total or per capita gross domestic product over a period of time.
 
Economic ownership The economic owner of entities such as goods and services, natural resources, financial assets and liabilities is the institutional unit entitled to claim the benefits associated with the use of the entity in question in the course of an economic activity by virtue of accepting the associated risks.

See also: Goods sent abroad for processing, Merchanting, Legal ownership
 
Component of: Ownership

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 3.26

French: Propriété économique
Economic production Economic production is an activity carried out under the control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses inputs of labour, capital, and goods and services to produce outputs of goods or services.
 
Economic rent See resource rent.
 
Reference: About the environmental and resource accounts

Source: Concepts, Sources and Methods of the Canadian System of Environmental and Resources Accounts, Catalogue no. 16-505

Notes: Introduced with the Canadian System of National Accounts 2012 historical revision.

French: Rente économique
Economic territory Includes the land area including islands, airspace, territorial waters and territorial enclaves outside Canada (such as embassies, consulates, military bases, scientific stations, information or immigration offices, that have immunity from the laws of the host territory) physically located in other territories. Economic territory has the dimensions of physical location as well as legal jurisdiction; so that corporations created under the law of that jurisdiction are part of that economy. The economic territory also includes special zones, such as free trade zones and offshore financial centres. These are under the control of the government so are part of the economy, even though different regulatory and tax regimes may apply. (However, it may also be useful to show separate data for such zones.) The territory excludes international organizations and enclaves of other governments that are physically located in the territory.

See also: Custom basis, Territorial enclaves, Classification of Economic Territory of Canada
 
Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 26.26

French: Territoire économique
Ecoprovince A part of an ecozone characterized by major structural or surface forms, fauna realms, vegetation, soil, hydrology and macroclimate. There are 53 terrestrial ecoprovinces in Canada.
 
Ecoregion A sub-component of an ecozone characterized by distinctive regional factors, including climate, physiography, vegetation, soil, water, fauna and land-use. There are 217 ecoregions in Canada.

See also: Ecozone, Ecodistrict
 
Ecosystem A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
 
Ecosystem goods and services The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning goods and services such as food, water, timber, and fiber; regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.
 
Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005, United Nations

French: Biens et services des écosystèmes
Ecozone A large area of the earth's surface delineated by distinctive sets of non-living and living resources that are ecologically related. Each zone can be viewed as a discrete system resulting from the interplay of the geologic, geographic, soil, vegetative, climatic, wildlife, aquatic and human factors which may be present in the region. There are 15 ecozones in Canada.

See also: Ecodistrict, Ecoregion
 
Ecumene The permanently settled portion of a country, or “inhabited land.” The concept is employed in thematic mapping to ensure that the spatial representation of data is limited to a particular area, such as agricultural land.
 
Emission trading A system in which tradable permits issued by governments give companies or institutions the right to emit fixed quantities of certain (normally gaseous) pollutants; for example, permits might be issued for the right to emit sulphur dioxide. The number of permits issued is controlled so that the total amount of the pollutant released from all sources is kept below an acceptable threshold. Holders of permits are allowed to trade them with others, with the price being determined through the normal market forces of supply and demand.
 
Employee Persons who, by agreement, work for a resident institutional unit and receive remuneration for their labour. The employee concept comprises full-time and part-time employees (those who regularly work fewer hours than the standard work week of the establishment) as well as military personnel, working owners, directors, partners and other officers of incorporated business. Owners or partners of unincorporated businesses and professional practices, the self employed, unpaid family workers, and persons outside Canada are excluded. Also excluded are persons who did not receive any pay from the employer for the entire survey reference period such as persons on strike, on unpaid holidays, receiving remuneration from an insurance policy, on Worker's compensation or related funds, etc. However, employees paid by the employer for a part of the reference period, and unemployed or on strike for the rest, are counted as employed.

See also: Compensation of employee
 
Component of: Employment

Reference: Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods, Catalogue no. 15-547

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 19.20

French: Employés
Employee future benefits Present value of employer's current account liabilities arising from the unfunded portion of employee's defined benefit pension plans, medical, dental and other plans. It includes the present value of future retiring allowances, severance payments, unpaid vacations and other future employee benefits. The present value of employee future benefits is calculated based on future obligations regardless of whether the employee is active or retired.
 
Notes: Introduced with the Canadian System of National Accounts 2012 historical revision.

French: Avantages sociaux futurs
Employee job All jobs in which the person employed draws compensation for services rendered. Jobs in which workers are paid by tips or commissions are included. Self-employed proprietors of unincorporated enterprises and unpaid family workers are not included.

See also: Job
 
Employer's social contribution Social contributions payable by employers to social security funds or other employment-related social insurance schemes to secure social benefits for their employees. Social security schemes are operated by general government; other employer-related social insurance schemes may be operated by the employers themselves, by an insurance corporation or may be an autonomous pension scheme. As employers' social contributions are made for the benefit of their employees, their value is recorded as one of the components of compensation of employees together with wages and salaries in cash and in kind. The social contributions are then recorded as being paid by the employees as current transfers to the social security schemes or other employment-related social insurance schemes. The payment made by the employer to the social security scheme or other employment-related social insurance schemes is not, in fact, a current transfer to the fund on the part of the employer. The transfer takes place between the employee and the social security scheme or other employment-related social insurance schemes out of remuneration provided by the employer.
 
Component of: Compensation of employees

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraphs 7.56, 7.57

Notes: Introduced with the Canadian System of National Accounts 2012 historical revision.

French: Cotisations sociales à la charge de l'employeur
Employment All persons, both employees and self-employed persons, engaged in some productive activity that falls within the production boundary of the System of National Accounts and that is undertaken by a resident institutional unit.
 
Component of: labour income

Composed of: employees and the self-employed persons.

Reference: Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods, Catalogue no. 15-547

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 19.19.

French: Emploi
Employment rate The number of persons employed expressed as a percentage of the population 15 years of age and over.
 
End-of-pipe Term for processes or equipment that treats pollution after it is produced and that are not an integral part of production. The sole purpose of these processes or equipment is to abate or control undesirable substances resulting from normal production.
 
Enterprise The top of the hierarchy, associated with a complete set of financial statements. As a statistical unit, it is defined as the organisational unit of a business that directs and controls the allocation of resources relating to its domestic operations, and for which consolidated financial and balance sheet accounts are maintained, from which international transactions, an international investment position and a consolidated financial position for the unit can be derived. An enterprise may be an institutional unit or contain more than one institutional unit.

See also: Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods, Catalogue no. 15-547
 
Component of: Statistical unit

Composed of: Corporations, quasi-corporations, non-profit institutions, partnerships, and other types of organizations

Notes: The concept of an enterprise in the Canadian System of National Accounts differs from that of the System of National Accounts 2008. The Canadian system of national accounts concept of enterprise is hierarchical while the System of national accounts 2008 concept of enterprise is not.

French: Entreprise
Entity Synonym of Institutional unit.
 
Reference: About the government finance statistical program

Source: Source: Financial Management System, Catalogue no. 68F0023

French: Entité
Entrepreneurship The control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses inputs of labour, capital, and goods and services to produce outputs.
 
Environmental protection expenditures Current expenditures and capital expenditures made to comply with, or anticipate, Canadian or international environmental regulations, conventions or voluntary agreements.
 
Composed of: Pollution abatement and control, Restoration of wildlife and habitat, Environmental monitoring, assessments and audits, Site reclamation and decommissioning.

Reference: About the environmental and resource accounts

Source: Concepts, Sources and Methods of the Canadian System of Environmental and Resources Accounts, Catalogue no. 16-505

French: Dépenses de protection de l'environnement
Equity and investment fund shares All instruments and records acknowledging claims on the residual value of a corporation or quasi-corporation after the claims of all creditors have been met. Equity is treated as a liability of the issuing institutional unit. Equities comprise common and preferred shares (stocks), which represent a share in the ownership of the company. In addition, the following are also considered as equities: depository receipts, most units of mutual funds, income trusts and warrants. Equities can be part of portfolio investment or direct investment in the Balance of Payments or International Investment Position, depending upon the relationship of the issuer and the holder.
 
Component of: Financial Account, Balance sheet, Financial assets

Reference: Canada's international investment position, Catalogue no. 67-202

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 11.83.

French: Capitaux et actions des fonds d'investissement
Establishment An establishment is a corporation, a quasi-corporation, or part of these, that is situated in a single location and in which only a single productive activity is carried out or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value-added. An establishment is the most homogeneous unit of production for which the business maintains accounting records from which it is possible to assemble all the data elements required to compile the full structure of the gross value of production, the use of materials and services, and labour and capital used in production. There is a hierarchical relationship between institutional units and establishments. An institutional unit contains one or more entire establishments. An establishment belongs to one and only one institutional unit.

See also: Industry; Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods, Catalogue no. 15-547
 
Component of: Company, Enterprise, Statistical unit

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 5.2

French: Établissement
Exchange rate effect Factor accounting for the change in the position of an asset or a liability from the beginning to the end of a period due to changes in the value of the currency of issue versus local currency.
 
Excise duties Special taxes levied on specific kinds of goods, typically alcoholic beverages, tobacco and fuels. They may be imposed at any stage of production or distribution and are usually assessed by reference to the weight or strength or quantity of the product.
 
Existing assets See net acquisition of existing assets.
 
Expenditure The values of the amounts that buyers pay, or agree to pay, to sellers in exchange for goods or services that sellers provide to them or to other institutional units designated by the buyers. The buyer incurring the liability to pay need not be the same unit that takes possession of the good or service. It is common for government units or non-profit institutions serving households to pay for goods or services that the sellers provide to households.
 
Component of: Current account, Capital account, Final demand

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 9.32

French: Dépenses
Expense A transaction that results in a decrease in net worth.
 
Exports Sales, barter, gifts or grants, of goods or services from residents to non-residents.
 
Exports and imports of goods and services Current receipts and payments arising out of transactions in moveable goods or services between residents and non-residents. Services include travel, freight and shipping, business services, government transactions, financial intermediation and other services.

See also: Canada's balance of payments, data quality, concepts and definitions, Catalogue no. 67-001
 
Exports (interprovincial and international) Receipts from other provinces or territories, or from abroad, for sales of goods or services. In addition to sales, the barter, granting and giving of goods and services as gifts also constitute exports. Exports are valued at producers' prices and at purchasers' prices. In the Input-Output Accounts, exports include travel expenditure of residents of other provinces or countries.
 
Export tax Taxes on goods or services that become payable to government when the goods leave the economic territory or when the services are delivered to non-residents. They include the following: a) export duties: general or specific taxes or duties on exports. b) profits of export monopolies: these consist of the profits transferred to governments of export marketing boards, or other government business enterprises exercising a monopoly over the exports of some good or service.

See also: Taxes
 
Component of: Taxes on products

Source: System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 7.95

French: Impôts à l'exportation
Extra-budgetary unit A unit not financed by the legislative budget of the controlling government.
 
Extrapolation Projecting estimates beyond the last available observation.
 
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