Science and technology

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that did not adopt or use advanced technologies for specific reasons, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period. Reasons for not adopting or using advanced technologies include not convinced of economic benefit; difficulty in obtaining financing; high cost of advanced technologies; investment not necessary for continuing operations; lack of technical skills required to support this type of investment; organizational culture too inflexible; decisions made by parent, affiliates or subsidiary businesses; lack of technical support or services (from consultants or vendors); lack of information regarding advanced technology; difficulty in integrating new advanced technologies with existing systems, standards and processes; other reasons for not adopting or using advanced technologies; and adoption or use of advanced technologies not applicable to this business’s activities.

Description: Percentage of enterprises where the use of clean technologies was related to environmental protection, sustainable resource management or adapted goods, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period. Environmental protection includes air and environment protection or remediation; waste management, reduction or recycling; and water or wastewater treatment. Sustainable resource management includes alternative fuels; non-emitting energy supply; bio-products; smart grid; energy storage; energy management and efficiency improvements; water management or recycling; agriculture, aquaculture, forestry or biodiversity improvements; and sustainable mining. Adapted goods include energy-efficient transportation, energy-efficient equipment or appliances, and advanced or lightweight materials.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises for which specific long-term strategies were the most important, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, over the next five years. The most important long-term strategies include main focus on good or service positioning, main focus on low-price and cost leadership, and good or service positioning and low-price and cost leadership are equally important.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises for which specific statements best described their strategic focus regarding goods or services (products), by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, over the next five years. Statements that best described enterprises’ strategic focus regarding goods or services (products) include maintain sales of existing goods or services, expand the sales of existing goods or services, introduce new or significantly improved goods or services regularly, and don’t know.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that sold only goods, only services or both goods and services, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that produced or manufactured any of the goods that they sold, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that offered specific services to complement the sale of goods, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period. Complementary services include after-sales maintenance or repair, installation or implementation, training or technical support, after-sales condition monitoring or quality control, customization, distribution or transportation, leasing or rental agreements, and other services.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that expanded capacity for specific services to complement the sale of goods, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Complementary services include after-sales maintenance or repair, installation or implementation, training or technical support, after-sales condition monitoring or quality control, customization, distribution or transportation, leasing or rental agreements, and other services.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that faced a specific number of competitors in the main geographical market, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises for which specific events occurred in the main geographical market, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period. Specific events include entry of new competitor(s), exit of competitor(s), increase in competitive behaviour from existing competitors, and decrease in competitive behaviour from existing competitors.

Description: Annual international imports and exports estimates of the environmental and clean technology products sector, per trading partner, for Canada, provinces and territories.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that co-operated on innovation activities with other businesses or organizations, located in Canada, the United States of America or the rest of the world by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Innovation co-operation is active participation with other businesses or organizations on innovation activities. These activities do not need to have commercial benefit, and exclude contracting out. Innovation co-operation partners include parent, affiliated or subsidiary businesses; suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software; clients or customers from the private sector; clients or customers from the public sector; competitors or other businesses in the sector; consultants and commercial laboratories; universities, colleges or other higher education institutions; government, public or private research institutes; and other co-operation partners.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises for which a specific type of innovation co-operation partner was the most critical for the business's innovation activities, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Innovation co-operation partners include parent, affiliated or subsidiary businesses; suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software; clients or customers from the private sector; clients or customers from the public sector; competitors or other businesses in the sector; consultants and commercial laboratories; universities, colleges or other higher education institutions; government, public or private research institutes; and other co-operation partners.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that made use of government programs to aid innovation-related activities, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Government programs include tax incentive or tax credit programs, grants and contributions programs, training and hiring programs, procurement, and other government programs.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises for which a specific type of government program was the most critical for the business's innovation activities, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Government programs include tax incentive or tax credit programs, grants and contributions programs, training and hiring programs, procurement, and other government programs.

Description: Percentage of enterprises that had cost of production of goods or services savings, or expenditure on support business functions savings resulting from the introduction of business process innovations, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and enterprise size for Canada and certain provinces.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that introduced product (good or service), by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a three-year observation period. Product innovation includes new or improved goods and new or improved services. Business process innovation is a new or improved process for one or more business activities or functions that differs significantly from this business’s previous business processes and that has been brought into use by this business in its internal or outward-facing operations.

Description:

Percentage of enterprises that had obstacles to innovation, that took measures to overcome obstacles to innovation, that took measures that were successful in mitigating specific obstacles to innovation and that made use of government programs to overcome specific obstacles to innovation, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and enterprise size, based on a one-year observation period. Obstacles to innovation include market size, external financing, internal financing, lack of skills, finding and reaching agreements with external collaborators, uncertainty and risk, regulatory or government competition policy, intellectual property protection, and other obstacles to innovation.

Description: Percentage of enterprises that introduced product or process innovations with environmental benefits from production through efficient use of resources, or environmental benefits related to increased environmental protection activities and to the end user or consumer, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and enterprise size for Canada and certain provinces.

Description: Percentage of enterprises that introduced product, process, organizational or marketing innovations that were new to one of their markets with environmental benefits from production through efficient use of resources, or environmental benefits related to increased environmental protection activities and to the end user or consumer, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and enterprise size for Canada and certain provinces.

Description:

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, advances in artificial intelligence and robotics raised concerns that automation might lead to relatively high unemployment rates in the coming years. This Economic Insights article examines the degree to which Canadians’ views about the impact of automation on net job creation in 1989 materialized three decades later.

Description:

This infographic describes the invesment in robots in the Canadian economy and its impact on employment.

Description:

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have rekindled ancient fears that robots will replace humans in the economy. Previous waves of automation changed but did not reduce labour’s role, but robots’ human-like flexibility could make this time different. Whether or not it will is an empirical question that has lacked suitable data to answer. This paper describes the creation of a dataset to fill the evidence gap in Canada. Robots! is firm-level panel data on robot adoption created using Canadian import data. The data identify a substantial amount of the robot investment in the Canadian economy from 1996 to 2017. Although many robots are imported by robotics wholesalers or programmers for resale, the majority of them can be attributed to their final (direct) adopting firm. The data can be used to study the impact of robot adoption at the economic region, industry or firm-level.

Description:

This study examines how employment and organizations have changed in response to robot adoption. As robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) become increasingly used by firms as the next engine of innovation and productivity growth, their effects on labour, firm practices and productivity have become a subject of growing importance. The study provides the most comprehensive evidence possible at the level of individual businesses on the employment and organizational effects of robot investments.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: As the ninth goal outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Canada and other UN member states have committed to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation by 2030. This 2020 infographic provides an overview of indicators underlying the ninth Sustainable Development Goal in support of industry, innovation and infrastructure, and the statistics and data sources used to monitor and report on this goal in Canada.

Description:

This infographic provides an overview of the Canadian Research and Development Classification (CRDC), a national standard jointly developed by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and Statistics Canada.

Description:

Recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies have fuelled fears of potential job losses among some workers. While the net impact of new technology on total jobs can be negative, positive or neutral, some workers may be more affected than others depending on how easily robots and algorithms can replace them, or how easily their skills complement the new technology. In the case of women and men, it is not clear who is likely to be most affected. This study estimates the risk of job transformation as a result of automation technology faced by women and men.

Description:

Over the past few decades, computer technology has gradually changed workplaces, leading to a reduction of routine and manual job tasks, and an increase in non-routine, cognitive tasks. More recent developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning could be even more far-reaching, as they are designed to execute tasks that were traditionally considered non-automatable.

Description:

The recent development of several artificial intelligence applications—such as driverless vehicles, robo-writers and computer-aided medical diagnostics—has led to concerns about the role of human workers in the future workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to these concerns, as businesses may turn to new artificial intelligence technologies to perform work activities not traditionally regarded as automatable, such as social tasks. While previous studies have estimated the share of Canadian workers at high risk of automation-related job transformation, this study is the first to examine in great detail the automation risks faced by different groups of workers.

Description: Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) is a statistical series, constructed by adding together the intramural expenditures on research and development (R&D) as reported by the performing sectors.

Description: This survey collects information related to research and development (R&D) in post secondary institutions in Canada, in particular information related to faculty teaching, research, administration and service. The data from the survey is an important component in estimating higher education research and development expenditures (HERD).

Description: This survey measures the general familiarity of owners and managers of enterprises across selected industries with intellectual property (IP). The purpose of collecting this information is to help evaluate impacts of Canadian Government programs to educate and raise awareness on the value of intellectual property.

Description: The survey on Research Activities and Commercialization of Intellectual Property in Higher Education collects information on how research conducted and produced in the higher education sector is transferred to the private sector.