Major cities drive Canada’s economic growth

Traditionally, Statistics Canada has produced estimates of GDP nationally and by province.

But now, the agency has found “economic activity in Canada is predominately concentrated in cities,” according to recently released data.

When assessing GDP in 2009, StatsCan looked at several census metropolitan areas that have populations of more than one million people, including Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. And it discovered these cities generated about 72% of Canada’s GDP in that year.

Read:

• Ontario’s economy no longer lagging
• Alberta’s growth on stampede

To date, it adds, “most analyses of metropolitan economies have relied on employment and income, [which are] indicators that measure the amount of and returns to labour used to produce goods and services, respectively.

“GDP includes the remuneration received by both labour and capital.” For more on how cities drive the economy, click here.

Also read:

Energy exports to fuel Canadian growth

Help clients look past volatile oil prices

Full recovery far off for Canada

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.