CANADA

 

This submission was prepared by Kay Cahill FRSA, BSc (Econ) and Jennifer Copley BFA BEd. of the Infodemons Information Consultancy (Canada) and edited by Kevin Cahill

 

Canada is a kingdom, also called a dominion, whose head of state is a Queen, Elizabeth 11. She is also Queen of the United Kingdom and of 32 other countries and territories. Canada was taken from France for the Crown of Great Britain following a battle near Quebec in 1759. The country retains a strong French influence especially in Quebec province, and has two official languages, English and French.

Population of Canada. 2005 census, 32.2 million people. The capital of Canada is Ottowa. Population of the capital 1,063,044. Canada is an independent kingdom and a member of the Commonwealth. Canada became a Dominion in 1867 and received a new Constitution in 1982 by way of amendment to the Canada Act of 1867. Total area of Canada: 2,467 million acres Of this area 2,247 million acres is land and 220 million acres are fresh water. The Europa World Yearbook 2004 describes Canada’s land area as the second largest in the world, after Russia.

The ownership factor is 1. The Queen is the sole legal owner of all the land of Canada. The private “holdership” factor, based on freehold tenure of housing is 67%. For all other land it is less than 9.7%, with over 90% of Canadian land remaining as Crown leasehold, administered for the Crown by various agencies and departments of the government of Canada

GNI in 2005 was $28,390 and Canada ranked 21 in the World Bank list

In the Economist Quality of Life survey Canada scored 7.59 and was ranked 21 out of 111 countries.

About 79% of the Canadian population is urban and there is no basic poverty in Canada.

There are 75.9 acres per person in Canada.

 

How Canada is owned

All physical land in Canada is the property of the Crown, Queen Elisabeth 11. There is no provision in the Canada Act, or in the Constitution Act 1982 which amends it, for any Canadian to own any physical land in Canada. All that Canadians may hold, in conformity with medieval and feudal law, is “an interest in an estate in land in fee simple”. Land defined as ‘Crown land’ in Canada, and administered by the Federal Government and the Provinces, is merely land not ‘dedicated’ or assigned in freehold tenure. Freehold is tenure, not ownership. Freehold land is ‘held’ not ‘owned’.

Canada, a vast territory dominating the north of the North American continent, was colonised by the British from 1497 when Cabot left Bristol and reached New Foundland. Subsequently, most of Canada fell under French control. In 1759, at the result of a single battle at Quebec, Britain took Canada from the French. In 1867 Canada became the first Crown colony to obtain self government within the Empire as a Dominion. Throughout most of the 19^th century, it was the stated policy of the American political parties to annex Canada. They were prevented from doing so only by the threat of British sea power. Canada is now, with Britain, America’s closest ally, despite some differences. The policy of annexing Canada has been shelved because not even America could afford the bill from the Crown, about $16 trillion. Canada is a federation of 13 provinces.

 

Land in Canada

Just 9.7% of the land of Canada is privately held. The majority of the land, 90.3%, is Crown Land, otherwise known as Public Land. Of this, 50% is Crown land administered by the Provincial governments and 40.3% is Crown land administered by the federal government.

Canada is on of the greatest land resources on the earth, and one of the most beautiful. There is more unused land in Canada than almost anywhere else on the planet. To give an indication of the relative size of Canada’s provinces are here ranked opposite the countries they are closest to in size with their associated populations.

 

Province	Acreage	Country	Acreage	Size rank in the world	Population Of the comparative countries
Newfoundland/Labrador	100,127,885	Paraguay	100,510,720	59	5,356,000
Prince Edward Island	1,398,586	Brunei	1,424,640	166	350,000
Nova Scotia	13,794,110	Croatia	13,971,840	125	4,442,000
New Brunswick	18,015,566	Panama	18,660,480	117	3,116,000
Quebec	381,042,037	Mongolia	385,501,760	19	2,504,000
Ontario	265,977,204	Bolivia	271,464,960	28	9,025,000
Manitoba	160,070,638	Afghanistan	161,134,720	41	22,930,000
Saskatchewan	160,870,995	Afghanistan	161,134,720	41	22,930,000
Alberta	157,707,374	Somalia	157,568,640	42	9,480,000
British Columbia	233,440,018	Tanzania	233,536,000	31	29,984,000
Yukon	119,211,665	Turkmenistan	120,611,840	52	4,859,000
Northwest Territories	332,622,792	Peru	317,584,000	20	27,148,000
Nunavut	517,227,249	Mexico	485,407,360	15	104,214,000
Totals	2,461,506,119		2,428,511,680
Total Population	31,660,294 Census 2000.				246,338,000

The total acreage here is based on the sum of the Canadian provinces as officially cited in the Canadian Government web site. (2,467,264.640 acres) There is a difference of about 6 million acres between this total and the official size of Canada as cited in the Europa World Yearbook. This is a difference of 0.2% and is accounted for by variations in survey methods.

 

Principal uses of land in Canada:

National Parks

There are 43 National Parks in Canada, which cover a total of 55,465,548 acres, or 2.2% of the total area of Canada.

Agriculture

Farms cover a total of 166,798,546 acres in Canada. There are a total of 246,923 farms, with an average size of 674.5 acres. 235,131 farms covering a total of 62,359,984 acres are privately held. The remainder, covering 104,438,561acres, are rented or leased from others.

Private homes

There are a total of 11,562,975 dwellings in Canada. Of these, 7,417,525 are held in freehold tenure by the resident homeowner. 64% of Canadians hold their own home. Mining

Mining companies operate in all Canadian provinces. The main minerals mined are gold, copper, zinc, lead, coal, oil and natural gas. Most mining land is leased, on Crown leases.

Forestry

Forest and All Other Wooded Land in Canada

Provincial Portion by Province:

Province	Forest Land Owned by Each Province in acres
Newfoundland/Labrador	48,967,807
Prince Edward Island	56,833
Nova Scotia	3,148,054
New Brunswick	7,373,464
Quebec	185,092,726
Ontario	153,412,035
Manitoba	84,681,170
Saskatchewan	53,936,988
Alberta	80,386,572
British Columbia	152,300,085
Yukon	55,782,825
Northwest Territories	79,996,154
Nunavut	2,320,269

 

Federal (Total/Aboriginal/Other)

Province	Forest Land held by the Federal Government in Each Province in Acres
	Aboriginal Land	Other Federal	Total
Newfoundland/Labrador	0	237,216	237,216
Prince Edward Island	0	2,471	(672,112)
Nova Scotia	22,239	266,868	289,107
New Brunswick	4,942	323,701	328,625
Quebec	607,866	378,063	985,929
Ontario	1,210,790	573,272	1,784,062
Manitoba	301,462	1,153,957	1,455,419
Saskatchewan	306,404	2,050,930	2,357,334
Alberta	570,801	6,278,811	6,849,612
British Columbia	560,917	1,087,240	1,648,157
Yukon	0	528,794	528,794
Northwest Territories	0	2,401,812	2,401,812
Nunavut	0	0	0

 

Private land (Total/Industrial, Nonindustrial)

Total	Privately held Land in acres
	Industrial	Nonindustrial	Other	Total
Newfoundland/Labrador	165,557	0	217,448	383,005
Prince Edward Island	0	0	610,337	610,337
Nova Scotia	2,293,088	5,011,188		7,304,276
New Brunswick	3,170,293	4,462,626	0	7,632,919
Quebec	2,720,571	20,165,831	2,471	22,870,873
Ontario	1,564,143	11,836,090	155,673	13,555,906
Manitoba	0	2,456,174	271,810	2,727,984
Saskatchewan	0	0	3,644,725	3,644,725
Alberta	0	2,641,499	37,065	2,678,564
British Columbia	0	4,398,380	0	4,398,380
Yukon	0	0	0	0
Northwest Territories	0	0	0	0
Nunavut	0	0	0	0

 

Unclassified: 19,768 acres total (17,297 acres in Quebec and 2,471 acres in Alberta)

45% (45 percent – 1,031,889,600 acres) of Canada’s land area is forested.

71% of the forested land is held by provincial governments, 23% by federal and territorial governments, and 6% is privately held by approximately 425,000 private owners consisting of individuals, families, communities, and forest companies.

Forest companies often manage forests and engage in logging activities in a partnership with the government, rather than holding forest land in Canada. The government, or the public, actually holds the forest and simply leases it to various companies who do the logging and management in many cases.

Forest companies hold just over 1.5% of Canada’s wooded land.