Canada

H

Festivals

Canadians and visitors enjoy summer festivals, such as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario; the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-lake, Ontario; and Cultures Canada, a series of multicultural events in Ottawa. Local traditions are preserved in a wide variety of events, including the Highland Games on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; the Sherbrooke Festival de Cantons in Québec City, celebrating French Canadian culture and cuisine; the Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin, Manitoba; and Discovery Day in Dawson, Yukon Territory. There are also a number of music festivals in Canada. Montréal is known for its jazz festival, and Toronto and Winnipeg for their folk music festivals. In the fall, “Fringe Festivals” in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria showcase new theatrical performances.

V

Economy

Canada has an advanced economy, and the majority of its citizens enjoy a high quality of life by world standards. Historically, much of this wealth has been generated through the extraction and processing of natural resources, especially fish, furs, timber, minerals, and farm produce. Increasingly, however, manufacturing and service activities have been added, and Canada now has one of the most complex economies in the world. Canada is also highly integrated into the global economy through trade, with more than a third of its GDP dedicated to exports.

The Canadian economy has grown more rapidly than those of most other developed countries since the recession of the early 1990s. This success is due to several factors, including low inflation, low interest rates, and a low Canadian dollar (with respect to other major currencies), all of which helped exports to grow. However, this growth has not generated as many jobs as analysts expected. Canadian businesses have found ways to increase their output by introducing more-efficient methods of production rather than hiring more workers. Also, the role of government in the Canadian economy has declined, and with it the number of jobs in the public sector. In early 2006 Canada’s unemployment rate was 6.6 percent.

From 1990 to 2003 the Canadian economy grew an average of 3.28 percent per year, reaching a GDP of C$857 billion, which represented a per-capita income of C$27,080. By 2003 Canada had achieved the second highest budget surplus and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of any Group of Eight (G-8) nation. The proportion of GDP accounted for by federal government expenditure decreased from 15.7 percent in 1994 to 11.5 percent in 2003. Employment growth in Canada’s manufacturing industries began to slow in the late 1990s, while employment in the service industry saw a strong increase. By 2003 three out of four Canadians worked in service industries, including the fields of health care and public administration.

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A

Labor

The Canadian civilian labor force numbered 17.3 million in 2005. The participation rate of men in the labor force reached a postwar high in 1981 of 78.7 percent and declined to 72.9 percent by 2005. The participation rate of women, on the other hand, has risen steadily to about 62 percent in 2005. In part, the shift toward a more gender-balanced labor force is the outcome of the women’s movement, but it is also a reflection of wider economic change, especially the growth of the services sector. The vast majority of workers in goods-producing industries continue to be men, while women outnumber men in finance, business, and community and personal services; the numbers of men and women in trade and public administration are roughly equal. In general, women work fewer hours than men (women hold almost 70 percent of all part-time jobs) and are paid less; in 2003 men in full-time, full-year employment earned C$39,100 on average, while women averaged less than two-thirds that amount (C$24,800).

In 1999 the Canadian government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), one of Canada’s largest unions, reached a pay-equity settlement to end a 16-year dispute. The settlement was one of the largest in North American history. In the dispute, the PSAC accused the federal government of discriminating against women by paying lower salaries for female-dominated jobs, including secretaries and librarians, than for male-dominated jobs of “equal value,” involving comparable education, demands, and responsibility. The federal government agreed to distribute about $C3.6 billion in back pay among some 230,000 past and present public service workers, primarily women.

The number of self-employed Canadians has risen substantially in recent decades, from 7 percent of the labor force in the 1970s to more than 14 percent in 2005. Many choose self-employment as a way to achieve greater independence; for some, however, it is a last resort when opportunities for regular employment are scarce.

Jurisdiction over labor matters is split between the federal and provincial governments, and legislation therefore varies across the country. Minimum standards are established by the Canada Labour Code, but provinces enact further rules. Canada also has federal and provincial laws that prohibit child employment, provide for maternity leave, guarantee the right to collective bargaining, require paid holidays, and require equal pay for men and women.

Labor unions have existed in Canada since at least 1827. There have been several periods when labor problems were acute, notably a period after World War I (1914-1918) that culminated in more than 300 strikes during 1919. The most famous of these, the Winnipeg General Strike, brought that city to a halt for six weeks and ended in bloodshed as the police fired live ammunition into a crowd of demonstrators.

Until recently, union membership in Canada had been highest in goods-producing industries; this has changed with the growth of the services sector. In 2004, 30.5 percent of all paid workers and 75.5 percent of public sector employees were members of unions, about twice the rates of the United States. There is a central coordinating body, the Canadian Labour Congress, that represents most unions at the national level. Many Canadian unions are linked to larger international groups, especially the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. See also Labor Unions in Canada.

B

Agriculture

Agriculture is not as important to the Canadian economy as it was in the 19th century, but it continues to be the mainstay of several regions and is a significant source of export income. In early 2001 there were 246,900 farms in Canada, averaging 273 hectares (675 acres) in size. Some 340,000 men and women worked in agricultural jobs in 2005, representing 2.1 percent of the total labor force. This is down from 430,000 and 3.2 percent in 1995. The annual value of farm output amounted to C$38.3 billion in 2001. Because of Canada’s abundant production and relatively small population, it is a leading exporter of food products; these account for 16.7 percent of goods exported, compared with 0.5 percent for Japan, 5.5 percent for Mexico, and 7.3 percent for the United States.

Farm life is changing considerably as farmers adjust to new trends. One trend is consumer preference for foods with lower fat content, which has changed demand for specific products. For example, there is less demand for cream and more demand for vegetables. Also, government has reduced its subsidies to the industry, making it necessary for farmers to introduce more profitable crops and more livestock production, which is generally more profitable. These changes have contributed to the decline of full-time farming, as more and more the majority of family-farm income comes from sources off the farm.

Farms in Canada are about equally divided between crop raising and livestock production. Wheat is the most important single crop, and the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan form one of the greatest wheat-growing areas of the world. As of 2003 Canada was the seventh largest producer of wheat in the world. One-half of Canada’s wheat is grown in Saskatchewan. Total wheat production in 2005 was 25.5 million metric tons. In recent years, prairie farmers have sought to diversify their crops to minimize the effects of bad crop years or reductions in the price of wheat. Thus they have increasingly shifted from wheat to other grains and oilseeds. After wheat, the largest cash receipts from field crops are obtained from canola, vegetables, barley, maize, potatoes, fruits, tobacco, and soybeans.

Canada’s agricultural sector is in two major parts. The first, dominated by grains and livestock, is geared to the export market, and farmers receive international prices. The second is sold within a protected Canadian market. These products, mainly dairy products and poultry, are regulated by provincial marketing boards that allocate quotas to individual farmers to preserve the farming sector and to match supply with demand. As a result, Canadian consumers pay a premium for poultry and dairy products. The future of marketing boards is in doubt, however, due to a recent agreement of the member countries of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which included Canada, to open agricultural markets to full global competition. GATT, now succeeded by the World Trade Organization, was an international body that promoted and enforced trade laws and regulations. It worked to minimize preferential trade agreements between countries and other barriers to international trade.

Livestock and livestock products are growing in importance within the Canadian economy. Beef cattle ranching is a specialized industry in the west, especially in the dry grasslands of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 2005 Canada had 15.1 million cattle, compared to 96 million in the United States.

In 2003 the Canadian cattle industry was damaged when a cow in Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. The discovery caused several nations, including Japan and the United States, to ban the importing of Canadian cattle. The ban was finally lifted in mid-2005, but not before costing the industry an estimated C$7 billion in lost sales.

In 2004 Canada had 14.7 million hogs and 980,300 sheep. Ontario and Québec ranked highest in dairy products, poultry farming, and egg production. Québec produced the vast majority of the maple products, and Ontario produced most of the nation’s tobacco crop. Fruit farming is primarily found in Ontario, British Columbia, and Québec.

C

Forestry

Forest products contribute significantly to regional and rural economies. The forest industry as a whole employs about 360,000 people directly and supports around 1 million jobs overall. It is estimated that the full range of forestry activities—from logging, through manufacturing, to trade in wood products—generates roughly 1 in 15 Canadian jobs. It is Canada’s largest nonurban employer, with activities concentrated in British Columbia, Québec, and Ontario. The industry accounted for about 3 percent of Canada’s GDP and 11 percent of all goods exported in 2003.

Canada’s forests make up about 10 percent of the world’s total forest area. Despite heavy harvesting by early settlers, forests, mainly coniferous, still cover 34 percent of the country’s land area. A national forest inventory is conducted every five years by Forestry Canada, the federal forestry agency, in cooperation with provincial and territorial agencies. Most of the forestland is owned and managed by the provincial and federal governments.

Canadian wood products are among the finest in the world: Canadian softwood lumber is made up of long fibers that provide a high strength-to-weight ratio, and Canadian pulp is known for strong, light-colored paper products. Canada is the world’s largest producer of newsprint and exports the vast majority of it. The United States is the world’s second largest producer but uses nearly all of its output domestically. Canada is also the world’s second largest producer of pulp, the third largest producer of sawn lumber, and the world’s largest exporter of softwood lumber.

In 2002 the United States imposed trade sanctions on softwood purchases from Canada, accusing the government of illegally subsidizing lumber companies and other unfair practices. Although U.S. restrictions and duties were reduced in subsequent years, the dispute cost Canadian lumber producers billions of dollars and damaged relations between the two countries. In April 2006 the two countries announced an agreement resolving the long-running dispute.

The annual allowable cut for a forested area is the amount of timber that can be harvested each year without diminishing the long-term sustainability of the forest. There is uncertainty in many parts of the country over whether the current harvest rates are sustainable. Regional supplies vary considerably, and some local shortages have been identified.

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