Marine sectors in Canada methodology

Acknowledgements

The methodology and data sources sections are based in part on a report prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada by Gardner Pinfold, "Economic Impact of Marine Related Activities in Canada (2009)".

Methodology

Statistics Canada's Inter-provincial Input-Output Model (IO model) ^{Footnote 1} was used to estimate the economic contribution of marine industries to the Canadian economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. This enables a meaningful comparison across industries and geographies.

The list and scope of industries considered to be marine industries was first identified by Gardner Pinfold and continues to be updated as new information and data becomes available. Starting in 2018 and continuing to today, commodity level expenditures for each marine industry were provided to Statistics Canada for a customized run of the IO model to obtain the related economic impact.

For estimates prior to 2018, GDP, labour income, and employment estimates for most industries were derived by applying the corresponding industry multiplier ^{Footnote 2} to estimates of gross output. The exceptions to this process were Marine Tourism and Recreation, National Defence, and Fisheries and Oceans, where commodity level expenditures were provided to Statistics Canada for a customized run of the IO model to obtain the related economic impact. This change in approach also entails a difference in the way that provincial level impact estimates are aggregated, making them not strictly comparable under the two different methodologies.

The GDP a marine industry generates quantifies the value it adds to production by applying labour and capital to purchased inputs. It is calculated by subtracting from total revenues (or output) of a given industry, the costs of intermediate goods and services used in the production process (e.g. energy, building costs, transportation, financial and professional services). Employment is measured in terms of number of jobs, which includes both full-time and part-time employment, and is based on labour costs which are unique to each individual industry.^{Footnote 3}

Economic impacts are driven by direct, indirect and induced demand, expressed in terms of industry and consumer purchases of goods and services. The sum of impacts flowing from each level of demand gives the overall economic impact of marine sectors in Canada, where:

• Direct impacts are those generated by direct demand for the products and services produced and sold by the marine industries included in this study. These marine industries directly add value to the goods and services purchased to produce their outputs. For example, the fishing industry adds value to the vessel, nets and traps and other supplies it purchases from manufacturers, by harvesting and selling fish; the shipping industry adds value to the ships, fuel and other supplies, by providing marine transportation services.
• Indirect impacts are those which arise from the indirect demand created by the marine industries for goods and services in other industries. For example, commercial fishing enterprises buy fishing gear from manufacturers and insurance from financial service firms; oil and gas companies buy services from maintenance contractors; construction companies carrying out port expansions require steel and concrete, and so on.
• Induced impacts are generated by the demand created in the economy through consumer spending of incomes earned by those employed directly and indirectly by marine industries. After accounting for taxes and savings, employees spend their earned income into the economy which results in a range of impacts across a variety of, typically, consumer-oriented industries. It may take a year or more for this round of consumer spending to work its way through an economy.

When two marine industries are linked by a supply chain, such as commercial fishing and fish and seafood processing or marine transportation and support activities for marine transportation, there is a risk of double counting economic impacts, as one industry generates demand for the outputs of the linked industry. For example, fish and seafood processing generates demand for the outputs of the commercial fishing industry, causing the indirect impacts of the fish and seafood processing industry to double count at least a portion of the direct and indirect impacts corresponding to the commercial fishing industry.

The existence of double counting between marine industries was assessed using the IO Supply and Use Tables.^{Footnote 4} Double counting of economic impacts between commercial fishing and fish and seafood processing in the seafood sector, and between marine transportation and support activities for marine transportation in the transportation sector were removed in proportion to their respective IO linkages.

Data sources

Fishing and seafood

Commercial fishing:

Atlantic and Pacific Regions: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), commercial sea fisheries landings, Canada Provincial - Values

Arctic Region: Pacific Region Integrated Fisheries Management Plans and DFO Central & Arctic region internal catch data.

2021 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0402-01 (Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories) adjusted using Statistics Canada Table 18-10-0268-01 (Raw materials price index), NAPCS 121 - Fish, crustaceans, shellfish and other fishery products.

Aquaculture: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0488-01, Output, by sector and industry, provincial and territorial, Aquaculture [BS112500]. 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 32 10 0108 01, Aquaculture economic statistics, value added account, gross output.

Fish processing: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0488-01, Output, by sector and industry, provincial and territorial, [BS311700], seafood preparation and packaging, 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0402-01 (Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories) adjusted using Statistics Canada Table 18-10-0265-01 (Industrial product price index), by product, product 171 from the North American Product Classification System (NAPCS).

Offshore oil & gas

Oil & gas exploration/extraction: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0488-01, Output, by sector and industry, provincial and territorial, [BS21100], oil and gas extraction, 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0402-01 (Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories) adjusted using Statistics Canada Table 18-10-0268-01 (Raw materials price index), NAPCS14111 for crude oil and NAPCS 142 for natural gas.

Transportation

Marine transportation: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0488-01, Output, by sector and industry, provincial and territorial, Water transportation [BS483000]. 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0402-01, Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories; adjusted using Statistics Canada Table 18-10-0005-01 Consumer Price Index, annual average, not seasonally adjusted, Services

Support activities: Statistics Canada, Table 36-10-0478-01 Supply and use tables, detail level, provincial and territorial, Water transportation support, maintenance and repair services [MPS488004] products supplied by Support activities for transportation [BS488000] industry at basic prices. 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Marine transportation growth rate.

Tourism & recreation

The methodology for tourism has changed as of 2023. With the intention to move towards data which is more current and easily replicable, marine tourism data is now derived from a custom order from Statistics Canada. The industry definition, however, is now more broad as we look at what can be considered “coastal tourism” as opposed to strictly marine activities. As a result the new marine tourism values are larger and cannot be compared with published values from previous years.

Statistics Canada provides tourism expenditure data from two surveys:

The National Travel Survey (NTS) for domestic expenditures - expenditures are taken from census subdivisions (CSD) that are considered coastal. Expenditures are further filtered by marine related activities.

The Visitor Travel Survey (VTS) for foreign expenditures – expenditures are filtered by marine related activities but data does not exist at the CSD level. Coastal values are calculated by taking the ratio of total provincial marine tourism expenditure to coastal marine expenditure from the NTS and applying it to the total provincial values from the VTS.

Manufacturing & construction

Shipbuilding and boat building: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0488-01, Output, by sector and industry, provincial and territorial, Ship and boat building [BS336600]. 2019 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0402-01, Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories, Ship and boat building [3366]; adjusted using Table 18-10-0265-01, Industrial product price index, by product, monthly, Ships [44111] and Boats and personal watercraft [44211].

Ports and harbours construction:

Atlantic and Pacific Regions:

• Transport Canada, Transportation in Canada, Canada Port Authorities (CPA) Financial Profiles, Acquisition of Capital Assets
• Department of National Defence (DND) Estimated Expenditures by Electoral District and Province, Capital Investment
• Capital Expenditures for Marine Atlantic and BC Ferries

Arctic Region: Statistics Canada Table 34-10-0063-01, Capital expenditures. The average ratio of marine engineering construction across all provinces is applied to total engineering construction in each of the territories.

2020 extrapolated up to 2021 using Statistics Canada Table: 34-10-0063-01 Capital expenditures, non-residential tangible assets, by type of asset and geography, seaports and harbours.

2022 extrapolated from 2021 using Statistics Canada Table: 36-10-0402-02 Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories, growth rates total engineering construction.

Public sector universities and environmental non-governmental organizations

Department of National Defence (DND): Data on defence services operations and maintenance (O&M) and capital expenditures for coastal provinces and territories were obtained from DND. The data was derived from DND Estimated Expenditures by Electoral District and Province. 2022 extrapolated from 2021 using DND's Departmental Plan 2022-23.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO): Expenditures were obtained by using DFO expenditures data sourced from the internally available Multi Year Financial Planning System.

Other federal departments: Total spending on marine-related activities from Departmental Performance Reports and Reports on Plans and Priorities for Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), Parks Canada (PCA), and Transport Canada (TC).

Provincial/territorial government departments: Provincial and territorial expenditures associated with the ocean economy were obtained from the Main Estimates and Public Accounts for each respective province and territory. An effort was made to exclude data otherwise counted in the National Accounts including ferry transportation, services to water transportation and marine-related construction.

Universities: Estimates of university ocean-related expenditures are based on a two-stage approach. The first stage is compiling all ocean-related grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the federal Council for Innovation (CFI). Funding for projects whose title relates to the Arctic region is allocated to the Territories even if the university that received the funding is located in a province. The second stage involved grossing up the estimated annual expenditures for coastal universities. The estimates are calculated by extending the 2006 Gardner Pinfold expenditure values with the growth rate of total university budgets as provided in the annual Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) reports.

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs): 2008 expenditures (calculated by Acton White) grossed up using the growth rate of financial data of representative ENGOs (taken from the CRA Registered Charity Information Return).