Big and Little Feet Provincial Profiles: Ontario

Abstract

This communique provides a summary of the production- and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions accounts for Ontario, as well as their associated trade flows. It is part of a series of communiques profiling the Canadian provinces and territories.1 In simplest terms, a production-based emissions account measures the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions produced in Ontario. In contrast, a consumption-based emissions account measures the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production process for final goods and services that are consumed in Ontario through household purchases, investment by firms and government spending. Trade flows refer to the movement of emissions that are produced in Ontario but which support consumption in a different province, territory or country (and vice versa). For example, emissions associated with the production of an Ontario manufactured good that is exported to Quebec for sale are recorded as a trade flow from Ontario to Quebec. Moving in the opposite direction, emissions associated with the production of Alberta crude oil that is refined in Ontario and sold as motor gasoline to an Ontario consumer are recorded as a trade flow from Alberta to Ontario. For further details on these results in a national context, the methodology for generating them and their policy implications, please see the companion papers to this communique series: (1) Fellows and Dobson (2017); and (2) Dobson and Fellows (2017). Additionally, the consumption emissions and trade flow data for each of the provinces and territories are available at: http://www.policyschool.ca/embodied-emissions-inputs-outputs-datatables-2004-2011/.