Asset Accounts

Natural resource asset accounts are one of the main elements of the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which was adopted as an international statistical standard in 2012. Natural resource asset accounts measure stocks of natural resource assets (oil, natural gas, minerals, timber and land) and the annual changes in these assets due to natural processes and human activity. These accounts, which are recorded using both physical and monetary units, form the basis of the estimates of Canada's natural resource wealth that are integrated into the Canadian national balance sheet accounts on an annual and a quarterly basis.

These statistics are employed to monitor the contribution of natural resources to our national wealth as well as to portray the physical quantities of renewable and non-renewable resources that Canada has at its disposal in the short term.

For full details on the international standards for asset accounting, see Chapter V of the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting: Central Framework.

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