Quarterly Statistics

The statistics presented in these documents reflect operations under the Investment Canada Act, specifically the number and value of notifications and reviewed applications. We strongly recommend that you read the important Data Interpretation notes below before forming any opinion on these statistics. They are published for each quarter and you may select the quarter you wish to view from the menu below. The defaults represent the most currently available publication.

Data Interpretation

Some factors to take into consideration, when interpreting this data, are:

• Acquisitions are recorded by the asset value of the Canadian business to be acquired, based on the corporation's most recent audited financial statements and not on the actual purchase price;



• New business proposals, since January 1, 1989, are recorded on the basis of the planned amount of investment over the first two years. Prior to such date, this data is recorded on the amount of investment by the end of the first full year of operation;



• Investments are recorded to the province with the largest share of employees of the business concerned. In the case of acquisitions, the acquired business is frequently active in more than one province, thus the attached statistics do not fully reflect the provincial distribution of foreign acquisition activity;



• The actual number and value of notifiable acquisitions and new business starts by international investors may not be wholly reflected for the following reasons:



• From time to time, two or more investors may submit notifications to acquire the same Canadian business. In such cases, each proposal is recorded as a separate transaction;



• Since June 1999, responsibility under the Act with respect to investments related to activities listed in Schedule IV of the Regulations was transferred to the Department of Canadian Heritage. Accordingly, since that time, our statistics do not include investments by non-Canadians in businesses engaged strictly in activities listed in Schedule IV;



• Most notifications and applications are submitted to Investment Review at the proposal stage and processed promptly under the terms of the Investment Canada Act. Subsequently, however, the investor for commercial or other reasons may choose not to implement the investment or implement it at a different time;



• There is a procedure in place with respect to applications whereby the investor is contacted, within a specified period after the approval of its investment, in order to ascertain the status of its investment. It is at this time that information is obtained as to whether or not the transaction was in fact implemented.



• The following statistics reflect those cases which, to the best of our knowledge, have been implemented and do not include the non-implemented cases.

Data Comparison With Other Statistical Sources

The Investment Canada Act has as its principal purpose the regulation of investment activity by non-residents. This differs from programs of other agencies, such as Statistics Canada, whose primary purpose is the development of information. As a consequence, Investment Review data on the value of foreign investments in a given period is a reflection of operations under the Investment Canada Act. Investment Review officials tabulate the value of "planned investment" from new business notifications and the book value of "assets acquired" from acquisitions requiring notification or review. Aggregated figures are published on a quarterly basis, two or three weeks after the end of March, June, September and December. These figures cannot be compared with either the FDI flows or stock figures published by Statistics Canada.

For Investment Review data, the source of funds used to establish or acquire a business is often unknown. It may be brought in from abroad, or obtained from a variety of sources within Canada (ie. Canadian-sourced financing, retained earnings or a loan from an affiliated company, etc.). In some cases, very little capital may be brought into Canada by the foreign investor, and as a result, there is only a corresponding marginal flow of FDI. Beyond this factor, there is no attempt to track the re-investment of the purchase price by the former owner of the businesses. In addition, Investment Review collects data on only new business proposals and acquisitions by non-Canadians, and this is a small portion of the value of foreign investment in Canada. For example, Investment Review data does not include the myriad of important plant expansions by established foreign investors in Canada.

Therefore, Investment Review statistics cannot serve as official statistics recording the flow of foreign direct investment entering Canada. However, they are useful in providing a timely measure of the frequency of foreign acquisitions of Canadian firms and new business start-ups by non-Canadians.

Should you require additional information about this publication, please contact our Technical Officer.