Data sources

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The main data sources used to construct the infrastructure economic accounts are the Canadian macroeconomic accounts. There are a number of benefits associated with using these data to construct the infrastructure economic accounts. First, the Canadian macroeconomic accounts follows international reporting frameworks. This means that the data used to construct the infrastructure accounts are internationally comparable to the concepts used by other countries. For example, the concept of investment used in the infrastructure accounts is the same concept of investment that the Bureau of Economic Analysis uses when measuring investment in the United States. Second, the Canadian macroeconomic accounts represents one of the highest quality statistical products released by Statistics Canada. The data are compiled by integrating a large number of economic and social statistics into a single framework. This integration (and confrontation process) forces Statistics Canada economists, sociologists and statisticians to ‘balance’ the data by adjusting the original estimates using supplementary information when integrated into the framework. This balancing process highlights data quality issues in the basic statistics which are addressed when viewed within an integrated system. The infrastructure accounts benefits from this integration process.

The Canadian supply and use tables (SUT) represent a detailed snapshot of all economic activity taking place in a geographic region. They are a powerful analytical tool that presents the structure of an economy as well as interlinkages among the various economic actors. SUTs are presented in the form of tables that illustrate the flow of goods and services within the economy from their production or import to intermediate consumption or final use. The supply table shows the supply of products from domestic industries and imports, while the use table tracks the use of those products as intermediate consumption or final use. Intermediate consumption refers to goods and services consumed by domestic industries to produce other products. Final use represents the final consumption of products by households, non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH), governments, capital formation, changes in inventory, and exports. The SUTs also include measures of income generated in the production process.

Data within the SUTs can be used to measure economic aggregates such as GDP. Furthermore, only SUTs provide a coherently integrated picture of the economy in terms of industries and products. All activity related to the production and use of Canada’s infrastructure is included in these tables. The problem, and necessity for the creation of the infrastructure accounts, is that the data are too aggregated to clearly depict the role of infrastructure in the economy and therefore other data sources are required to disaggregate these data. In many ways the infrastructure economic accounts are simply a disaggregation of the data contained in Canada’s supply and use tables.

The Canadian input-output tables convert the product dimension of the SUTs into an industry classification. These symmetric tables (industry by industry) allow tracking of the impact of an industry’s expenditures on other industries as well as the dependence of each industry’s revenues on other industries and then final uses.

Input-output models are used to study the relationship between final expenditures (such as investment) and industry output, value added and employment levels such as the impacts from infrastructure investment on value added and employment. These models are often employed to estimate the economic impacts of an anticipated change in final expenditures. For example, the input-output model can simulate the impact of a construction project in British Columbia on output, GDP and employment.

The Canadian capital stock accounts are closely aligned with the Canadian supply and use tables in that they are based upon the same classification system and employ the same concepts related to investment and wealth. Whereas the supply and use tables provide a picture of the production of infrastructure and the investment in infrastructure in each accounting period, the capital stock accounts provide a measure of the stock of infrastructure in Canada, the depreciation of that stock and investments being made in order to maintain or expand the stock.

Although capital stock can be measured in a variety of ways, such as surveys of physical stock or book values, the method most widely used by international statistical agencies, including Statistics Canada, is the perpetual inventory method (PIM). The PIM is generally favoured as it is a very flexible way to develop a time series of capital stocks. The essence of the method is to add each year’s gross investment (gross fixed capital formation) to the capital stock of the previous year and to subtract the consumption of fixed capital. Since the stock needs to be valued at current prices, the model requires price information to inflate the previous years’ stock to current period values. In addition, since the stock gradually deteriorates as it is used, information on the services lives of the assets and their depreciation profile is required. The combination of gross investment flows, price indexes, service lives, and methods of depreciation all figure into the calculation of Canada’s capital stock.

Information on service lives and the age-price profiles of discarded assets gathered from the "Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey" are used to establish econometrically modelled mean service lives. Estimates of services lives are periodically updated and incorporated into the PIM model.

Various price indexes are used to inflate the stock to current period prices. These include industrial product prices, machinery and equipment price indexes, import and export price indexes, new housing price indexes, raw material price indexes and other industry and commodity prices, as well as labour costs. Similar to the depreciation profile, prices are asset specific, and as it can be difficult to estimate prices for certain types of assets, such as engineering assets as they are not frequently transacted on the market, SUT weights are also used to estimate prices.

The Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey collects data on the upcoming year intentions for capital expenditures and the expenditures for the previous two years. On occasion, where economic changes justify the need, data on the revised intentions are also collected for the current year. The survey collects the following information which is pertinent to the infrastructure accounts:

• capital expenditures (spending on the acquisition of new assets and the renovation, retrofit, refurbishing, overhauling, and rehabilitation of existing assets)
• expected useful service lives of the assets being acquired
• original cost and age of assets that are discarded, retired or destroyed
• sales and purchases of used assets
• value of work in progress at year end

The International Merchandise Trade Statistics program measures the change in the stock of material resources in Canada resulting from the movement of merchandise into or out of the country. When goods are imported into or exported from Canada, declarations must be filed with the Canada Border Service Agency, giving such information as description and value of the goods, origin and port of clearance of commodities and mode of transport. Most of this information is required for the purposes of customs administration. Statistics developed from administrative records of customs are commonly referred to as customs-based trade statistics.

The Canadian core public infrastructure survey collects statistical information on the inventory, condition, performance and asset management strategies of core public infrastructure assets owned or leased by various levels of the Canadian government or by Indigenous entities. The following 9 core public infrastructure assets are assessed:

• Bridge and tunnel assets
• Culture, recreation and sports facilities
• Potable water assets
• Public transit assets
• Road assets
• Public social and affordable housing assets
• Solid waste assets
• Storm water assets
• Wastewater assets

Other data sources that will be used to construct the accounts include estimates of employment by occupation from the labour force survey and census of population. This information will be used to help understand the use of infrastructure by occupation and the size of the labour force dedicated to producing and maintaining Canada’s infrastructure.

Additionally, information from the Canada Housing Statistics Program will be used to help estimate the use of infrastructure by detailed geographic location and data from the transportation statistics program and other business programs will be used to estimate the use of infrastructure by the corporate sector.

A final important source of information will be data taken from Statistics Canada government finance statistics which provides estimates of government expenditures by purpose, by level of government administration. The government finance statistics are compiled based on the internationally accepted accrual accounting framework for reporting government finances. These data will be used to estimate the way in which Canadians use public infrastructure.