Resource-reliant Communities, 2001

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A significant portion of the Canadian economy is reliant upon resource-based economic activities, which account for approximately 13% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) and approximately 15% of all employment in Canada. Resource reliance is a measure of the relative importance of a resource sector to a particular community. In the context of these maps, resource refers to the production and initial processing of five types of natural resources (agriculture, energy, fisheries, forestry and mining). These resources form the basis of the economy for much of Canada outside larger cities. The economic impact of these resources is measured in terms of the employment income directly generated by their exploitation, processing and (in some cases) distribution.

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The term ‘community’ corresponds to the areas defined as census subdivisions (CSDs) for the 2001 Census of Population. In 2001, there were 1997 resource-reliant communities in which 30% of their employment income was derived from employment in the following resource sectors:

• 804 agriculture-reliant communities
• 149 energy-reliant communities
• 207 fishery-reliant communities
• 652 forestry-reliant communities
• 185 mining-reliant communities

Of these 1997 resource-reliant communities, 84 were combined-reliance communities, which had a reliance value of 30% or more in two of the five resource sectors.

Resource-reliant communities are distributed across all settled areas of Canada except the far north and most of southern Ontario. There are pronounced regional concentrations:

• forestry-reliant communities are common in British Columbia, northern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick
• communities reliant upon energy are concentrated in Alberta
• agriculture-reliant communities are concentrated in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec
• fishery-reliant communities are found largely in the Atlantic Provinces

The Data and Mapping Notes provide more detailed information on the methodology and the 2001 Census data used to measure resource reliance.