Natural resources are an important part of the Canadian economy, but “natural resources” is not a category in the main datasets available from Statistics Canada.* This includes such critical measures as employment, exports, and gross domestic product.

To help address this shortfall, Statistics Canada has created a special dataset that combines the natural resource activities (not including agriculture)** that take place across multiple industries. The latest results just came out and provide annual data by province for the 2009 to 2022 period.

Key findings include:

• Alberta had the largest natural resource industry in the country in 2022 at 38% ($137 billion) of the sector’s national nominal GDP ($359 billion). Ontario is second on the list at 16% of the total.
• The reason for Alberta’s outsized share is its energy patch which accounted for over half (53%) of the nominal GDP generated by the national energy sub-sector in 2022.
• Energy production and products play a dominant role in Alberta’s natural resources sector, accounting for 94% of the province’s nominal natural resource sector GDP in 2022.
• B.C. had the largest forestry industry in the country in 2022 at 31% ($8 billion) of the national forestry sub-sector’s nominal GDP ($26 billion). Alberta was in third spot at 16% ($4 billion) of the Canadian total.
• Saskatchewan had the largest mineral and mining industry in 2022 at 26% ($21 billion) of the national sub-sector’s nominal GDP ($83 billion).
• Alberta’s natural resources sector was 46% larger in terms of annual real GDP in 2022 than in 2009 when the data series begins.
• Once again, energy (particularly crude oil extraction) was the main driver, accounting for almost all of the growth and offsetting reduced output in the mineral and mining sub-sector and the hunting, fishing and water sub-sector.
• The real GDP generated by crude oil extraction in Alberta was an incredible 103% higher in 2022 than in 2009. This increase in the volume of oil produced is tied to the expansion of oil sands activity in the province.
• The number of people employed in Alberta’s natural resources sector has gone up and down since 2009, peaking in 2013 and 196,559 and falling to a low of 149,376 in 2016. Employment has since increased to 171,992 as of 2022.
• Not surprisingly given its large role noted above, the energy sub-sector accounted for 84% of all natural resources sector jobs in Alberta in 2022. 

*The North American Industry Classification System that is used to break down economic data into sectors includes categories such as “oil and gas extraction” and “wood product manufacturing,” but it does not have an umbrella category for the natural resource sector.

**Natural resource activities as those which result in goods and services originating from naturally occurring assets (excluding agriculture) used in economic activity, as well as their initial processing (primary manufacturing). The natural resource sector is split into four distinct sub-sectors: forestry; energy; mineral and mining; and hunting, fishing and water.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The youngest athlete on Canada’s 2024 Summer Olympics team is 14-year old skateboarder Fay De Fazio Ebert.

Today’s trivia question: What is the age of the oldest athlete on Canada’s 2024 Summer Olympics team?