Infrastructure Economic Account

Detailed information for 2024

This program produces annual estimates of investments, net capital stock, depreciation, economic contributions, environmental perspectives, and the average age and remaining useful service life of infrastructure assets, by purchasing industry, by asset function, and by province and territory.

Data release - March 14, 2025

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The Infrastructure Economic Accounts (INFEA) isolates the role of infrastructure investment within the economic accounts and traces its contribution to the Canadian economy. The concepts and methods used are consistent with those used in the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA), in particular, the supply-use table, stock and consumption of fixed capital program and the productivity accounts.

The INFEA publishes values (in current or constant Canadian dollars) of investment, net stock and depreciation of infrastructure assets. The economic contributors are measured with the number of jobs, compensation of employees and value added (in current Canadian dollars) and the environment perspective is measured with Greenhouse gas emissions (Tonnes) and Greenhouse gas emissions per value added (Tonnes per thousand dollars) and clean input investment (in current Canadian dollars).

Results from this program are used by both the private and public sectors including federal and provincial government departments, such as Infrastructure Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Reference period: Year

Subjects

• Construction
• Machinery and equipment
• Non-residential building construction

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population comprises all business, government and non-profit institutions serving households operating in Canada. Outlays for used Canadian assets are excluded since they constitute a transfer of assets within Canada and have no effect on the aggregates of our domestic inventory. Assets imported from outside Canada are included as they increase our domestic inventory.

Instrument design

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are collected directly from survey respondents and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys.

Data are collected from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

Estimates of investment are provided by the Stock and Consumption of Fixed Non-residential Capital (record number 2820). Estimates of investment are benchmarked to the Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables (record number 1401), by industry and asset, and to the Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product by Income and by Expenditure Accounts (record number 1902). Capital expenditure estimates, by industry and asset, from the Annual Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey: Actual, Preliminary Actual and Intentions (record number 2803).

Error detection

This methodology does not apply.

Imputation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Estimation

Infrastructure specific investment refers to only those assets from the North American Product Classification System that fit the INFEA definition of infrastructure: the physical structures and systems that support the production of goods and services and their delivery to and consumption by governments, businesses, and citizens.

The INFEA investment is measured using a mapping with INFEA assets and Capital Stock (record number 2820) by commodity. The Annual Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey (record number 2803) is used to calculate shares (after 2015) or the mean of the shares where there is no Capital Expenditures data to split assets infrastructure from the Capital Stock commodities.

The stock of infrastructure assets is the accumulating investment flows produced over time. The perpetual inventory method is used as it estimates a value of the net stock of fixed assets. The depreciation of that stock is calculated using the geometric method with asset specific depreciation profiles. Investment added to the stock of the previous year, subtracting depreciation, results in the net stock.

The average age of investment is then derived as the weighted age of all investments remaining in the gross stock at year end. The remaining useful life, which is the difference between the average age of the investment spending and their expected service life, is then divided by the expected service life, creating a ratio that indicates the percentage of the asset class that remains.

The economic contribution is a result of production of infrastructure assets from investments for value-added gross domestic product (GDP), compensation of employees and number of jobs. Within the INFEA program, the value-added from the production of infrastructure designated assets as per the latest supply-use table (record number 1401).

The number of jobs comes from the Canadian Productivity Accounts of the CSMA. It represents the number of jobs held by the self-employed, employees and unpaid family workers. The compensation of employees represents the wages and salaries, and supplementary labour income due to labour inputs for the production of infrastructure assets.

The infrastructure economic contribution is distinguished between direct effect and indirect effect. The direct effect is the economic impact of the producing industry affected by investment, whereas as the indirect effect is the consequence that businesses take to the additional demand beyond those accounted by the direct effect.

As for the environmental perspective, the Green House Gas emissions are measured with the direct and indirect levels of value-added GDP. The multipliers are linked with the Environmental and Clean Technology Products Economic Account.

Quality evaluation

Data are analyzed for time series consistency, links to current economic events, issues arising from the source data, and coherence. Any irregularities identified are carefully analyzed and any corrections are made before the official release.

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

Estimates are released occasionally after the release of the Stock and Consumption of Fixed Non-residential Capital. The release comprises revisions to the two previous years. Statistical revisions are conducted to incorporate the most recent information from surveys, taxation statistics, public accounts, etc., as well as from the annual benchmarking process of the Input-Output Accounts and the Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product by Income and by Expenditure Accounts.

Data accuracy

No direct measures of the margin of error in the estimates can be calculated. The quality of the estimates can be inferred from analysis of revisions and from a subjective assessment of the data sources and methodology used in the preparation of the estimates.