The Canadian economy, drawn from the data

Canada · Canada

One customer, many products: Canada’s goods trade with the United States

On a customs basis, the United States takes most of what Canada sells and supplies less than half of what Canada buys. That imbalance, and what is in the shipments, is the shape of Canadian trade.

Updated November 6, 202625 min read

Provinces and Cities · Calgary CMA, Edmonton CMA, Toronto CMA

Same index, different cities: how new-home prices diverged after 2016

Statistics Canada starts every city’s new-home price index at 100 in December 2016. Nearly ten years on, two cities are up by more than half and two have barely moved.

Updated November 6, 202616 min read

Industries · Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador

Canada’s export map: which provinces sell energy, and which sell to America

In 2025 Ontario sold the most. Alberta sold the energy. New Brunswick sold almost everything to one customer. Three ways of being an export economy, in one map.

Updated November 6, 202618 min read

Provinces and Cities · Calgary CMA, Edmonton CMA, Toronto CMA

Two Canadas in the year to July 2025: Edmonton and Calgary grew fast while Toronto’s population stood still

Six large cities were all growing quickly in 2023 and 2024. In the year to July 2025, Edmonton and Calgary kept growing while Toronto and Vancouver stopped. One flow explains most of the slowdown…

Updated November 6, 202613 min read

Industries · Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador

Where the money comes from is not where the jobs are: Alberta’s energy paradox

In 2025 energy was most of what Alberta sold abroad, more than a fifth of its output and two-fifths of its capital spending, but the industry’s own payroll was a small share of its jobs. Four ways of…

Updated November 6, 202613 min read

Provinces and Cities · British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan

Ten provincial labour markets: who is tight, who is slack, and what the rate hides

Unemployment rates range by only a few points across the provinces, but employment, vacancies and earnings tell different stories about the same places.

Updated November 6, 202613 min read

How a Bank of Canada decision reaches your mortgage, and why it takes time

The policy rate was 2.50% on 5 November 2026. The posted five-year mortgage rate was 6.19% in the week of 28 October 2026. This note follows the chain between those two numbers and shows where the household feels it.

Pay per hour has run ahead of output per hour: reading the productivity gap

Since 2017 compensation per hour in Canada’s business sector has risen to 141.4 on a 2017 = 100 scale by Q2 2026, while output per hour has reached 105.3. What the gap between the two means, and what it cannot tell you.

Same word, different place: why provincial, metropolitan and national data are not interchangeable

A city, its province and the country are not measured the same way. This note shows four concrete cases in Statistics Canada tables, with the data, and explains why Northline never draws a chart that mixes geographic…