The Atlantic Provinces of Canada

Abstract

THE Atlantic Provinces-Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick-are situated on Canada's Atlantic seaboard. The total land area of the region is I 94,000 square miles of which 74,000, or 38 per cent, is productive forest land. Another 56,ooo square miles, most of it in Newfoundland (which includes the eastern part of the Labrador peninsula), is non-productive forest land-land incapable of producing crops of merchantable timber because of adverse climate, soil or moisture conditions-while io,ooo square miles is occupied agricultural land. The population of the four provinces is about two million. The population growth between the I95I and I96I censuses was I 7 per cent to compare with 30 per cent in all Canada. Regional population is about 49 per cent urban, 42 per cent rural non-farm and 9 per cent rural farm. The four largest urban centres are the metropolitan areas, Halifax and Sydney-Glace Bay in Nova Scotia, Saint John in New Brunswick and St. John's in Newfoundland with I96I populations of I 84,000, I o6,ooo, 96,ooo and 9 I,000 respectively. The economy of the Atlantic Provinces is based largely on primary extractive and processing activities. In I96I the primary producing industries-agriculture, forestry, fishing, trapping and miningaccounted for 28 per cent of the net value of commodity production. The processing of primary products accounted for a further I6 per cent. Thus the extraction of primary resources and the processing of these resources accounted for about 44 per cent of the net value of commodity production. The region is heavily dependent on foreign export markets. It has been estimated that 20-23 per cent of gross regional income is generated in the export sector. Although the region exports a wide variety of products it is heavily dependent on a very few. In recent years forest products (wood, pulp and paper) accounted for about 47 per cent of the total value of exports, fish and fishery products for 20 per cent, and metallic minerals for i6 per cent. Export trade is also heavily concentrated in a few markets. In recent years 5I per cent of all exports have gone to the United States, I9 per cent to Great Britain, i0 per cent to Latin America, and 9 per cent each to the Commonwealth Preference Area, excluding Great Britain, and Western Europe.1