Primary Industry

FishingFarmingForestryMining

FISHING

Where is the industry found in Canada?

• Atlantic/East Coast, Pacific/East Coast, some inland areas for commercial fishing

What are the resources?

• Ocean fish (ground fish like cod, pelagic fish like salmon, and shellfish like lobster)

What methods are used to extract or grow the resource? • Inshore: Small family fishing boats with fixed gear

(fish weirs, lobster traps, etc.) travel about 16-25 km to coastal fishing areas during the warmer months. These usually self employed fishermen only make 10% of the catch – also lower income.

• Offshore: Large boats (owned by large companies) with mobile nets, foreign factory trawlers travel out to the edges of the continental shelf (up to 370 km) for up to 2 weeks at a time on the same fishing ground – ALL YEAR ROUND. They make up 90% of total catch and have higher income as a result.

What are challenges/issues for the industry?

• Collapse of the East and West Coast fishery• Competing demands for commercial fishing, sport

fishing, and First Nations (especially on the West Coast)

• Aquaculture – fish farms

Do any of the following impact the industry :

• Over-harvest of the resource?Overfishing is one of the reasons why the fisheries collapsed! On the East Coast, fish were being caught before reaching maturity and there was no sustainable yield management at the time. Moreover, uncontrolled foreign fishing (especially Russian and Japanese) caused the United Nations to impose national control of sea borders up to 370km.

On the West Coast, Canadian and U.S, fisheries overfished for the same reasons and could not implement a Salmon Fishing Treaty.

Also, destructive fishing practices like catching “unwanted” fish (and just disposing them) contributes to over-harvesting.

• Changing environment?On the East Coast natural conditions such as water temperature and salinity levels have dropped effecting fish migration. Moreover, the since seal hunts have declined, seal (natural preditors of groundfish like cod) populations have disrupted the fish populations. On the West coast, the effects of global warming has increased the temperature of the Pacific ocean, pushing the fish like salmon (who like 7 degrees or less) migrate north (toward Alaska).

• Improved technology?Larger trawlers and navigation systems have made the catch extremely successful!

• Changes in ideology/thinking?Sustainable Yield Management

• Economic benefits of the industry?Commercial fishing has a monopoly over the industry catch – 90% in the East Coast and 94% in the West Coast.The industry only makes up 0.15% of total value of Canada’s economyCanada is the leading exporter of fish (more than 50% of catch exported) – valued at $3 Billion (while import fish is valued at $1.6 Billion)

VIDEO LINK: YouTube “From Sea to Shelf Fisheries of the Future”

FARMING

Where is the industry found in Canada?

• Depends on the type:

What are the resources?

What methods are used to extract or grow the resource?

• Intensive Farming - an agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labour, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area

• Extensive Farming - an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of labour, fertilizers, and capital, relative to the land area being farmed.

Extensive farming most commonly refers to sheep and cattle farming in areas with low agricultural productivity, but can also refer to large-scale growing of wheat and other grain crops

• Both include mechanization = increase in size of the farm decline in the number of farms

What are challenges/issues for the industry?

• Children don’t want to take over the family farm (irregular hours, low income, high costs, no control over prices, etc.)

• Large agribusiness companies (ex. Co-ops, private/public companies) pool costs, share equipment, profits divide. They produce food by large companies and land owned by multinational companies – even the seeds!

Do any of the following impact the industry :

• Over-harvest of the resource?Naturally, soil erosion (soil damage from wind/water) encouraged by shortsighted soil practices (not allowing fields to fallow/uncultivated and not rotating crops) are evidence of over-harvesting.

• Poor prices for the resource (nation/world-wide)?

Farmers have no control of the world prices…volatile world market make it tough to balance costs and prices.

• Changing environment?Erosion/soil damage

Contamination – pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides all damage water bodies and wildlife that depend on them. Other harmful chemicals from smoke stacks and heavy metals from vehicle emissions have an impact on surrounding farmland

Loss of farmland – urbanization …moreover, on quality land (ex. Toronto on Class 1!!! >o<). Farmers are selling their land for urban use (housing and factories).

• Improved technology?Mechanization … factory-like production

• Changes in ideology/thinking?Sustainable agriculture (ex. Natural fertilizers, crop rotation)

• Economic benefits of the industry?Agriculture is a VITAL INDUSTRY

Value of agricultural production is almost $27 Billion (see p. 271)

Agriculture contributes more than $11 to the economy

1 in 5 jobs related to agri sector of the economy

Exports – surplus grains, vegetable oil products

VIDEO LINK: YouTube “Back to the Start” by Chipotle

FORESTRY

Where is the industry found in

Canada?• A band of forest runs across Canada from BC to

NL and covers close to half of Canada`s total area! Commercial forests can be harvested profitably: Boreal, Taiga, West Coast, Montane, and Mixed Forest Regions.

What are the resources?

• This depends on the region. For instance mixed forest regions produce hardwood for lumber, while boreal produces softwood for pulp and paper.

What methods are used to extract or grow

the resource?Three main types:• 1.Clear-cutting: fastest and the cheapest, most

environmentally damaging• 2.Shelterwood logging: clear-cutting only one

part of an old growth forest, resulting in uneven growth/age of trees, as well as regeneration, less damaging that simply clear-cutting.

• 3.Selective cutting: harvesting only mature trees of desired size, type or quality, least disruptive, costly & time-consuming and no replanting of new uniform forest

What are challenges/issues for

the industry?Threats to forestry: • acid precipitation, • damage from insects/pests/disease, • forest fires (while this is a normal part of forest

life cycle, over 50% are cause by people), • and of course clear cutting.

Do any of the following impact the

industry :• Over-harvest of the resource?Clear-cutting is the worst example of over-harvesting

• Poor prices for the resource (nation/world-wide)?

Pulp and paper, as well as lumber are quite lucrative markets, however they are subject to global competition and Canada is at a disadvantage due to it`s short growing season – especially with countries like Brazil.

• Changing environment?Trees are renewable resources, however they are threatened by acid precipitation, insects/pests and global warming

• Improved technology?Major investments have been made into pesticides used to kill insects/pests

Mechanization in logging (extraction)

• Changes in ideology/thinking?- Silviculture : breeding and cultivating of trees (tree farm)- Sustained Yield Forest Management- Balanced approach

• Economic benefits of the industry?1 in 16 jobs depends on forestry.

Forest industry (including lumber, pulp and paper, and other forest products like maple syrup) is worth $70 Billion and over half is exported!

VIDEO LINK: YouTube: “Save Clayoquot Sound Part 1, 7 pts”

MINING

Where is the industry found in

Canada? • It depends on which valuable mineral group:

Metallic Minerals, Fossil Fuels, or Industrial Minerals

• For instance, most fossil fuels are found in AB and metallic minerals are found in igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield

What are the resources?

• Metallic Minerals: gold, cobalt, copper, iron, nickel, zinc, uranium

• Fossil Fuels: coal, natural gas, oil• Industrial Minerals: asbestos, building stone, clay,

diamonds, gravel, potash, salt, soapstone

What methods are used to extract or grow

the resource?• There is continous mining exploration because mineral reserves

are non-renewable resources.• Mining sites are located in remote areas far from existing

transport routes, so it`s expensive to build a road/railway to ship equipment in and the product out. Moreover, mining facilities to extract resource from the ground and mill to separate must be built. Don`t forget : fresh water, sewage treatment and electricity, as well as housing for miners.

• Three types of mines :o Strip : coal and oil sands, dig into several layers of the surface, removal of trees…o Open Pit : extends even deeper (10-15m), rock blastedo Underground MIning : deep into the earth

• Processing is the next step : ores like nickel, copper, gold require milling to separate it from ‘waste rock’, and then smelting refines the product (smelters are expensive to build - $1 Billion – far away from mill and an environmentally damaging process because waste materials (tailings) are kept in tailing ponds and highly poisonous.

What are challenges/issues for

the industry?• Negative impacts on the environment • Exporting of Canadian jobs! 50% of minerals

mined in Canada are exported, but not processed in Canada

• Mining towns are totally dependent on mines for their existence. If the mines close…

Do any of the following impact the

industry :• Over-harvest of the resource?It is an non-renewable resource and our highest quality reserves are being exhausted.

• Poor prices for the resource (nation/world-wide)?

The Canadian mining industry is vulnerable to events out of its control (ex. The world market – especially the Asian market – has experienced a decline in demand.

Canada is at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with developing countries which have lower costs of production because of lower labour costs and fewer pollution controls

• Changing environment?Emissions from mines and processing plants (cause acid precipitation) – due to the large amount of smelters in Canada we are major polluters in North America.

Abandoned mines: scars on the land and are continuing sources of pollution as they leak into lakes and rivers.

• Improved technology?Financial government assistance and investment is continuously needed for new technologies that make operations more efficient

Explore new locations in all areas of Canada including undersea locations.

• Changes in ideology/thinking?- Environmental controls- Economic regulation

First Nations land claims should be considered for when/how mineral deposits will develop

• Economic benefits of the industry?*See “Value of mineral production” Fig. 24-4 on p. 298

Export 80% - largest exporter world wide

Canada is ranked 3rd in production of minerals

All mineral production is worth $49 Billion

VIDEO LINK: YouTube “Canada`s Indigenous Inuit fear mining boom” – about Nunavut