Canada's natural resource wealth, 2013

Data for this release came from the Natural Resource Asset Accounts (NRAA). These accounts measure the value of natural resource assets; for example, reserves of metal ore in the ground or accessible stands of timber in forests. For mineral and energy resources, reserves are defined by the amount of proven and probable stocks that are economical to extract using available technology. For timber resources, only the stocks that are physically accessible and available for harvesting are accounted for.

Changes to the Natural Resource Asset Accounts

As of reference year 2013, data for the NRAA program have been revised to reflect changes made to the underlying capital stock data used in the estimation of the value of natural resource assets. These changes reflect the recent redesign of the Flows and Stocks of Fixed Capital Program of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA). The methodology for estimating the flows and stocks of fixed capital has been redeveloped to ensure greater coherence of the capital stock program within the CSMA. This is done by incorporating investment flows directly from the CSMA on a detailed industry/asset basis. The redesigned program incorporates updated depreciation profiles and service lives into its capital stock estimates; in addition, the program's classification (by industry and asset class) is now based on the input-output final demand classification. For more information on the redesign, see "Changes to the Flows and Stocks of Fixed Capital."

As a result of these changes, the 'return to produced capital' and 'depreciation of produced capital' components of the natural resource stock assets estimates program were revised slightly downward for most resource assets. As natural resource assets are valued net of these capital costs, most natural resource assets within the NRAA program were revised upward to an extent. Revisions apply to the entire time series, from 1961 onwards for energy resources, mineral resources and timber. For more information on the calculation of natural resource asset values, see chapter 3 of Concepts, Sources and Methods of the Canadian System of Environmental and Resource Accounts (Catalogue number16-505-G).

As of reference year 2012, Statistics Canada has implemented some important methodological changes to the NRAA program to align with the new international standard for environmental accounting, the System of Environmental Economic Accounting 2012.

For more information, see "Methodological changes made to the Natural Resource Stock Accounts as of reference year 2012" (survey number 5114).