In 2021, output of transportation activities reached $429.5 billion and accounted for 8.3% of Canada's gross domestic product
The output of all transportation activities, as defined by the Canadian Transportation Economic Account (CTEA), was $429.5 billion in 2021. The total contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) was $203.0 billion, representing 8.3% of Canada's GDP.
The output by the for-hire transportation industries was $201.8 billion in 2021, while own-account production of air, rail, water, and trucking services by the non-transportation industries was $43.2 billion. Households produced $184.5 billion of own-account transportation services.
Share of own-account transportation by mode in 2021
Own-account production of air, rail, water and truck transportation services by the non-transportation industries was $43.2 billion in 2021. The share of own-account production to total production for these four modes of transportation was 28.2%.
In 2021, the most significant own-account activity was trucking, accounting for 96.0% of own-account transportation activity. Own-account trucking accounted for 35.3% of total trucking activity in Canada. Own-account activity for the other modes of transportation was smaller, at $1.8 billion combined, representing 5.1% of the total domestic supply.
Canadian transportation from 2017 to 2021
Total production of air, rail, water, and truck transportation in Canada was $144.4 billion in 2017 and $153.1 billion in 2021. The total for these four modes of transportation peaked in 2019, at $160.3 billion, and fell to $134.3 billion in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recovery from the pandemic varied by mode and by type of transportation activity. In 2021, for-hire-trucking, as well as own-account transportation for all four modes of transportation, had fully recovered from the pandemic. In contrast, for-hire air, rail and water transportation services had not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels by 2021. For-hire air transportation services were by far the most impacted mode by the pandemic.
Trucking in Canada grew by 20.0% in current prices from $97.7 billion in 2017 to $117.3 billion in 2021. During this five-year period, for-hire-trucking grew at a faster pace (+27.6%) compared with own-account trucking (+8.2%). As such, the share of own-account trucking to total trucking fell from a high of 39.1% in 2017 to 35.3% in 2021.
The evolution of air, rail, and water transportation was different than that of trucking. The own-account activity for the three modes of transportation combined grew by 29.4% from 2017 to 2021, whereas the for-hire services fell by 24.8%, mostly because of the significant decline in for-hire air transportation services.
Table 2: Output of for-hire and own-account transportation by mode, in current dollars
Note to readers
The Canadian Transportation Economic Account (CTEA) estimates are a supplement to the Canadian Supply and Use Tables (SUTs). The data is only available up to 2021 because it relies on the SUTs' production cycle. Because of their detailed and comprehensive nature, SUTs are published with a three-year lag. This delay is caused by the time required to gather and compile all the necessary source data. The CTEA provides a comprehensive measure of transportation services. This measure extends beyond the output of the traditional for-hire transportation industries by including own-account transportation services provided by industries outside the transportation sector and by households.
The CTEA presents own-account transportation by each mode as a separate industry. Therefore, in addition to the 12 existing for-hire transportation industries (air transportation, rail transportation, water transportation, truck transportation, urban transit systems, other transit and ground passenger transportation and scenic and sightseeing transportation, taxi and limousine service, crude oil and other pipeline transportation, pipeline transportation of natural gas, support activities for transportation, postal service, and couriers and messengers), five new own-account transportation industries are introduced in the CTEA, one for each of the four primary modes of transportation (air, rail, water and truck) and one for the Household Production of Transportation Services (HPTS) industry.
Valuing the production of own-account transportation services by industries has no impact on value added by industry and total gross domestic product (GDP). However, measuring HPTS, in the macroeconomic framework, increases GDP by the amount of depreciation and by certain taxes on motor vehicles owned by households.
The CTEA consists of four tables:
Supply: The supply table is a product by industry matrix that shows how much of each product is produced by each industry, as well as imported from outside Canada.
Use: The use table is a product by industry matrix that shows how much of each product is used by each industry as an intermediate input. It also shows use by final demand categories (such as personal expenditure, investment and government consumption), inventories and exports.
Direct requirements: The direct requirements table is a product by industry matrix that shows the cost of each product used by an industry per dollar of industry output, including the costs of for-hire and in-house transportation.
Total requirements: The total requirements table is an industry by product matrix that shows the sum of direct and indirect industry output required to produce a product for use by final demand (household consumption, government consumption, capital formation, and international exports).
Reference
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 1401.
Previous release: Canadian Transportation Economic Account, 2021.
Contact information
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