"Canada: One of the Best Places in the World to Live"

Canada Business Facts

by Prashant Ajmera (Advocate)

A strong and stable economy coupled with liberalized business and professional immigration policies have enabled Canada to become a major place of attraction for corporate bodies, businessmen, professionals, etc. worldwide. It's economic and foreign policies are both, welcoming and competitive.

A recent survey carried out by the management consultant firm KPMG indicated that it is considerably cheaper to do business in Canada than in the U.S.A. Similarly, another report published by a Geneva-based private consultancy, the Corporate Resources Group, puts Canadian cities among the least expensive of the 125 major cities of the world. Canada's most expensive city, Toronto, ranked t on the list of 125. Of the major cities categorised by this group, Montreal ranked 114th, Vancouver 115th and Calgary 119th. In an earlier survey conducted by the same group which studied the living standards in 118n major cities of the world, Vancouver stood 2nd Toronto 4th, Montreal 7th and Calgary 12th.

Any businessman interested in establishing business in Canada would like to know the potential of the consumer market or the strength of the customers. The NAFTA agreement between America, Canada and Mexico gives Canadian businessmen access to 360 million consumers to sell their products. In the coming year the same agreement will also provide a big labour market for the individual job oriented migrant.

The economic growth rate of Canada (GDP) in 1994 was 2.5% ahead of U.K., U.S.A., France, Japan, Italy and Germany and it is predicted that this economic growth will continue to remain higher than the above mentioned countries in 1995-1996 also. Though the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of Canada is greater than that of France, Italy and the U.K., it is less than that of Japan, Germany and the U.S.A.

The inflation rate is one of the key factors in gauging the economic strength of any country. The inflation rate for consumer product in Canada was 1.8% lower than the inflation rate in Germany, Italy, U.S.A. and France in the year 1993-94. However, the inflation rate was higher than that in the U.K. and Japan where the inflation rate were 1.3% and 0.9% respectively.

The corporate taxes on the basis of GDP and GNP are also competitive i.e. less than those in Japan, Italy and the U.S.A. nut more than those of France, Germany and the U.K.

Because of various favourable economic factors in Canada, investment has increased from $68 million in 1982 to $136.6 in 1992. At the same time Canadian entrepreneurs and corporate bodies have made investments outside Canada. The net result was that in the year 1992-93 the total inflow of cash was $600 million from all over the world.

In the list of investing countries which invested in Canada, U.S.A. ranked first, followed by the U.K., the EEC countries, Japan and other UECD countries. Of the total investment in Canada, the highest investment was in the manufacturing industries and the second highest was in the financial institutes.

In Canada merchandise trade has increased from $86.03 million in 1977 to $350.34 million in 1993 (Import-Export rate).

Although Canada has import-export business trade with all the major developed and under-developed countries in the world, its major trading partner is the U.S.A. The general impression and knowledge is that Japan is the U.S.A's major trading partner of the U.S., whereas Japan has managed to capture only 14.8% of the U.S. market.

In 1993, Canada made 80.3% export business and 67.0% import business with the U.S.A. Compared to these figures, Japan made 4.9% export business and 6.3% import business with the U.S.A.

Amongst the G-7 countries, Canada has more personnel per thousand of labour force in research and development industry than the U.S.A. and Italy but less than those Germany, Japan, France and the U.K.

The number of computers per head is less in Canada as compared to the U.S.A. but more as compared to France, U.K., Germany, Japan and Italy. Canada occupies second place in the world as far as the usage of computers is concerned.

The telecommunication system is the best in Canada and Canadian telecommunication system is ranked first in the world. The telecommunication infrastructure comprises of 252 million kilometres of public switch telephones and data network. All of these are interconnected through satellites, cellular telephones and mobile radio networks. Despite the size of the country the telephone service is virtually universal in Canada with 16 million access lines providing service in 99% of the households. This country also has the highest number of telephone access lines per 100 population.

With respect to the transport network in Canada the transportation infrastructure provides one of the best services in all the four means of transport viz. road, rail, air and marine. There are also other advance ways of shipment such as pipe lines and intermiddle services. According to the world competitive report of 1992, Canada has the best transportation infrastructure to meet the business requirements of companies competing internationally.

With respect to energy, Canada spends more money on research and development in the field of energy as compared to U.S.A., France, U.K. or Germany. Due to abundance of natural oil, Canada is highly self-sufficient in this aspect. In fact, Canada has a net surplus of 19.1 million metric tons of natural oil in 1991. Due to easy availability of natural oil, the price of natural gas for industry in Canada is the lowest in the world.

The Human Development Index is measured on the basis of the life expectancy, education, the national income and the overall standard of living. Canadians have the second place int he world with respect to the high standard of living and high life expectancy. In Canada medical facilities are freely available to all citizens and permanent residents. The Canadian government takes extraordinary care of its natives and spends 9.9% of its GDP on health care facilities. High standard of living, pollution-free air and water and healthy food gives the Canadian adult an average life expectancy of 77 years.

The Canadian government spends 36% of the GDP to train and educate its labour force in order to provide highly skilled and educated workers to Canadian domestic and international business operators, giving Canada second place in the world. The administrative and professional labour cost in major cities of Canada viz. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal is less than that in major cities of America, France, Italy and Japan.

Similarly, the cost of office place is lowest in Canadian cities as compared to other cities of the world. Housing cost in Canada is also one of the lowest in the world.

Due to stability and strength of the Canadian economy, many renowned multinationals have their head offices and operations in Canada. Some of these companies are: General Motors, Ford Motors, Chrysler, Imperial Oil, IBM, Shell Canada Ltd., Canada Safeway Ltd., Seize Canada Ltd., Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd., Total Petroleum, etc.

A number of independent small to medium scale U.S. and European companies also have their offices in Canada.

The crime rate in Canada is less than 40% in every category of crime against human beings compared to America. This is because the Canadian youth is educated and the government takes special care of its youth. In the age group of 20 to 24 years. 70% of the student enroll in universities giving Canada second place in the world. Canada also has the highest number of graduates in every major area of study giving Canada first place in the world.

Due to the above-mentioned benefits and other positive aspects of this beautiful country, it is not surprising that the United Nations has voted Canada as one of the best places in the world to live.

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