Commercial Activity in Canada in 1998
By Dr. Jim Simmons and Shizue Kamikihara
This publication has been prepared by the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity for the use of its members; and to underline the importance of these activities within the Canadian economy. We try to update this publication every two years to reflect the rapid changes in the industry; and over time we hope to extend and improve the coverage.
One immediate practical application of this report is to point out to Statistics Canada and other data-gathering agencies the inadequacy of their coverage of these important economic sectors. As will evident, there are some massive gaps in the data. This report is based on a file of over one hundred time series, describing variables relevant to market analysts. These measures cover the period from 1960 to the present. From this material we have selected a small number of measures and relationships for discussion in the report. Because of the many problems in the compilation of the data, this report is circulated with a major caveat: It is necessary to take note of the data source for a particular piece of information. For the most part, the data obtained from various sources are not directly comparable. The source of information is identified in each table; use the data with care!