6
TRANSPORTATION AND REGIONAL ECONOMIES
In 1998, the growth in the importance
of transportation
at the provincial/territorial level was driven primarily by Ontario,
where economic growth was served largely by trucking services.
In terms of total transportation, the top four provinces
rank the same as their provincial economies.
Each mode of transport - road, marine, rail, and air - makes
its own contribution to the economy of each province and territory.
This chapter examines the role played by regional transportation
as an essential contributor to the nation's economy.
The importance of transportation in the regional context can
be assessed in several ways. Two of these are
- transportation's importance within the provincial economies
- provincial transportation's importance within the national
transportation and economy.
The first perspective was used in the two previous annual reports.
This year's report presents the relative importance of provincial
transportation within the national context. This approach provides
the relative economic weight of the provinces, an important perspective
in Canada given the large disparity in size of its provinces and
territories.Note
1
Transportation industries cover all commercial transportation
activities, i.e. transport of freight or passengers for a fee.
Three indicators measure the relative importance of regional transportation:
- value-addedNote
2 of provincial transportation industries
- employment in provincial transportation industries
- expenditures on transport-related goods and services.
The value-added and employment indicators measure the supply
or production of transportation. The indicator for transport-related
expenditures measures the demand for transportation in a broader
context; that is, it includes expenditures by households and investment
by government and industry,Note 3 as well as other government
transportation-related expenditures.Note 4
- Transportation and Regional Economies Transport
Related Demand and Investment
Appendix 6-1a Transport-Related Expenditures
by Province as Percentages of National Totals, 1998
Appendix 6-1b Annual Growth in Transport-Related Expenditures
by Province in 1998
Appendix 6-2 Provincial Transport-Related
Investment as a Percentage of National Investment, 1997
NOTES
1
In this chapter, "territories" refers to the total of
the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut territories.
2
Value-added refers to the payments such as wages and profits made
to labour and capital, which are the principal factors used in
production throughout the provincial economy. Because value-added
is determined by payments to labour and capital, transport's importance
to provincial economies is determined by the location of the workers
and capital employed by commercial carriers.
3
Whether made by business or government, "transport investment"
can be defined as both new infrastructure construction and purchases
of new machinery and equipment. Investment excludes repair and
maintenance expenditure, which are expenditures on existing infrastructure,
machinery and equipment.
4
Government expenditures refer to government spending on transport,
other than investment, the largest component of which is road
maintenance. It forms the final component of the traditional
economic accounting relative to final domestic demand, where final
domestic demand = consumption + investment + government spending.
|
