Activities of Canadian Multinational Enterprises Abroad

Activities of Canadian Multinational Enterprises Abroad
Variable(s)
Summary of changes
Other reference periods
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Detailed information for 2023

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Annual

Record number:

1539

This program measures outward foreign affiliates statistics (FATS) such as sales of goods and services, employment levels and the assets and liabilities of Canadian multinational enterprises abroad.

Data release - December 6, 2024 (preliminary)

Description

This program measures the sales of goods and services, employment levels and the assets and liabilities of Canadian multinational enterprises abroad. Throughout this document, the terms "Canadian majority-owned affiliates abroad", "(Canadian) majority-owned foreign affiliates (abroad)" and "MOFAs" refer interchangeably to Canadian multinational enterprises abroad.

Selling goods or services through MOFAs is a means for Canadian companies to market their products internationally. In the case of goods, the products sold by majority-owned foreign affiliates may be produced in Canada or produced abroad.

Under this program, the Activities of Canadian Multinational Enterprises Abroad, assets and liabilities held by Canadian multinationals' subsidiaries operating abroad are primarily compiled on a consolidated accounting basis. This uses the Booked Worldwide by geographic location concept, which excludes Canadian multinationals' investment in their foreign subsidiaries at the headquarter level. If consolidated balance sheet data are not available, then unconsolidated data may be used when producing final estimates.

Assets and liabilities held by operations in Canada, as reported under the Activities of Multinationals in Canada program, are compiled under the Booked in Canada concept, which measures all transactions that originate in Canada. This includes Canadian multinationals' investment in their foreign subsidiaries. Therefore, assets and liabilities held by Canadian multinationals abroad and by Canadian multinationals in Canada are based on different accounting concepts and comparing both should be done with caution. Other economic activities such as employment or sales in Canada and outside Canada can be added to derive the worldwide totals.

The Activities of Canadian Multinational Enterprises Abroad program incorporates changes starting with reference year 2018. Previously, the data were largely derived from a weighted sample survey. The population of majority-owned affiliates of Canadian multinational enterprises abroad is now covered by supplementing unweighted survey data with administrative and publicly available data.

Reference period: Calendar year

Collection period: The collection period is generally from April to November of the year after the reference period.

Subjects

  • Economic accounts

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The universe for this program is comprised of foreign affiliates abroad that are majority-owned (i.e. more than 50% of the voting shares) by a business that resides in Canada.

In order to be consistent with the international practice for measuring foreign affiliate trade statistics, only the data for majority-owned foreign affiliates (MOFAs) are included. Sales and employment figures of MOFAs are fully attributed; there is no adjustment for less than 100% ownership.

Instrument design

Starting with reference year 2018, various survey data, administrative data, and publicly available information (e.g. annual reports) are used to build the Outward FATS program.

Sampling

For reference years 2018 onwards, sampling is no longer applicable to the Outward FATS program.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Starting with reference year 2018, data from the Canadian Investment Abroad (BP-CIA) survey are supplemented with information from administrative data, Canadian Mining Assets (Natural Resources Canada, Lands and Minerals Sector, Industry and Economic Analysis Division) and publicly available information (e.g. annual reports). For roughly 100 large cases, data on financial and employment variables, by country, from published annual reports are integrated into the processing system.

The following administrative data sources from the Canada Revenue Agency are used in the data compilation process:

T2 schedule 9 - Related and Associated Corporations
T106 - Information Return of Non-Arm's Length Transactions with Non-Residents
T1134 - Information Return Relating To Controlled and Non-Controlled Foreign Affiliates

Survey data, tax schedules (T2 schedule 9, the T106, and the T1134) and other administrative data are used purely to produce descriptive statistics on multinational enterprises at aggregated levels.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

After the data imputation and estimation process is complete, adjustments are made to the data to ensure consistency and coherence of the time series. Administrative and external data sources are also used at the macro level for data confrontation to provide additional error detection.

Imputation

For reference years 2018 onwards, an imputation and estimation process is applied to all published variables: assets, liabilities, sales and employment.

In cases of inconsistent year-over-year reporting (e.g. reporting every other year), data points for the missing periods are interpolated based on the data for the reported years.

Ratio analyses are used to identify data points deemed incoherent and correct them based on the stratum's characteristics.

For units that are deemed to be significant in terms of their overall contribution to the estimates (based on either previously reported data or publicly available information), data is researched on a case-by-case basis and estimated largely from information contained in their annual reports, financial statements, or online research.

In cases where a business's total activities abroad are reported in aggregate without an industrial dimension, row wise imputation is conducted to spread aggregate figures to industries according to the available survey and administrative data.

Donor imputation is also used in cases where detailed geographical information is missing from annual reports (e.g. "all other countries").

Estimation

A linear regression based on all other available data is used to estimate unreported employment data.

Quality evaluation

Before the Canadian majority-owned foreign affiliates data are published, several steps are taken to ensure the quality of the estimates.

Counterpart data submitted to supranational organizations by national statistical agencies are also confronted, along with other sources such as the financial press, business publications and company reports.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

At the time of publication, data for the two preceding years are subject to revision.

Seasonal adjustment is not applicable to annual data series.

Data accuracy

Many errors such as non-sampling error, coverage error, data response error and non-response error have been minimized by the inclusion of various administrative data sources.

Processing error may occur at various stages of processing such as data entry, editing and tabulation. Measures are taken to minimize these errors. Historical ratio analyses also aid in eliminating outliers created by data entry.

Documentation

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