Marine sectors in Canada, sources and methods

Acknowledgements

The methodology for the Canadian Marine Economy is based in part on a report prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) by Gardner Pinfold, "Economic Impact of Marine Related Activities in Canada”. This 2009 study identified the scope of industries that contribute to economic output from marine related activities.

In addition, DFO works with Statistics Canada on an annual basis to leverage the Inter-provincial Input-Output (I-O) Model to estimate the economic contribution of marine industries to the Canadian economy^{Footnote 1}.

Methodology

The marine economy is defined by the industrial sectors whose activities take place in or make use of the marine environment, and that make a substantial contribution to the Canadian economy. However, in the System of National Accounts (from which input-output tables are derived), industrial aggregates include many related industries and not all marine related economic activity is directly associated its own classification. Whereas the flows from seafood harvesting through to processing or export are relatively complete in the NAICS classification, other activity from cross cutting sectors such as tourism and some aspects of transportation and public sector oversight cannot be easily derived.

Building on the Gardner Pinfold study, and with the help of Statistics Canada, DFO produces annual estimates on the marine economy to enable meaningful comparisons across relevant sub-industries and geographies, and makes updates to the calculations and methods as new information becomes available.

The I-O model is published with a 4 year lag, and requires relevant data to be closely aligned with the model reference dates. The ensuing estimates for GDP and employment are relatively out of date compared with administrative sources. For this reason, DFO provides administrative data at the commodity level to Statistics Canada on an annual basis in exchange for a customized set of supply and use (I-O) tables^{Footnote 2}.

As of 2024, the reference year 2020 is the latest year of complete data in the Statistics Canada I-O model, and the economic multipliers reflect the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. For the current publication, DFO has elected to use the 2019 multipliers to estimate 2022 and 2023 output values.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a value added concept, and reflects output from a given industry after the costs of intermediate goods and services used in the production process (e.g. energy, building costs, transportation, financial and professional services) have been subtracted^{Footnote 3}. On the other hand, employment is measured in terms of the 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 4}.

Economic impacts are the collective outcome of 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 is considered as the overall economic impact of marine sectors in Canada, where:

• Direct impacts are those generated by the value added to the goods and services that are purchased by marine industries. 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 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 which results in a range of impacts across a variety of, typically, consumer-oriented industries. It may take a year or more for these impacts to work through an economy.

In the System of National Accounts, there is a risk of double counting economic activity when the output of one industry constitutes the input of another, such as the sales from commercial fish harvesters that move directly to fish and seafood processing plants. Every effort is made to ensure double counting of economic impacts is accounted for in proportion to their respective I-O linkages^{Footnote 5}.

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.
2022 Extrapolated up to 2023 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]. 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 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, 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 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, 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 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]. 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 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. 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 using Marine transportation growth rate.

Tourism & recreation

The methodology for tourism has changed as of 2023 mainly by leveraging more relevant details in customized tables from Statistics Canada. The industry definition is also broader, as “coastal tourism” activities are included. As a result, estimates for tourism 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]. 2020 extrapolated up to 2023 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.

2021 extrapolated up to 2022 using Statistics Canada Table: 34-10-0063-01 Capital expenditures, non-residential tangible assets, by type of asset and geography, seaports and harbours.

2023 extrapolated from 2022 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. 2023 extrapolated from 2022 using DND’s Departmental Plan 2023-2024.

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).