In 2019, Canadian businesses spent about $21.1 billion to reduce impacts on the environment; just over two-fifths ($8.9 billion) were allocated to environmental protection activities—a decline of 8% from 2018 (see note to readers)—and the remaining $12.1 billion was devoted to resource management activities (+21% from 2018).
Two broad categories of activities are recognized under environmental protection expenditures: environmental protection activities, which consist of the prevention, reduction or elimination of pollution (e.g., wastewater management); and resource management activities, which reduce the intensity of natural resource use and environmental impacts (e.g., equipment that reduces heat loss in industrial facilities).
Also, each expenditure can be classified as being either operating expenses (for example, salaries and services) or capital expenditures (for example, outlays for machinery and equipment). In 2019, the majority of environmental protection spending in both categories was for operating expenses (69%), with the remainder being capital goods investments. The $6.5 billion spent on capital goods for environmental protection and resource management activities represented 7% of total capital expenditures for all industries included in this survey.
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