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1999 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
Exhibit 9.5—Examples of Environmental Indicators Prepared by Statistics Canada
Natural Resource Assets and National Wealth
This first indicator, natural resource assets, includes energy, mineral and timber resources. It represented about 10 percent of total national wealth in 1995. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, these resources represented 20 percent of total wealth. The major reason for the decline in the relative importance of natural resources was changes in energy resource assets. The other components of national wealth are shown for comparison.
Agricultural Land Use and Supply
The second indicator focusses on agricultural land use and supply. Canada's cultivated land increased five-fold between 1901 and 1996. In contrast, the supply of dependable agricultural land declined by 16 percent over the same period, as a result of the increased use of this land for urban and non-agricultural purposes. Sometime during the early 1980s, the area of land under cultivation in Canada surpassed the supply of dependable land. This means that agricultural production has been increasingly reliant on marginal land in recent years.
Source: Statistics Canada. Econnections: Linking the Environment and the Economy—Indicators and Detailed Statistics 1997