Big and Little Feet Provincial Profiles: Manitoba

This communique provides a summary of the production- and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions accounts for Manitoba, 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 Manitoba. 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 Manitoba through household purchases, investment by firms and government spending. Trade flows refer to the movement of emissions that are produced in Manitoba but which support consumption in a different province, territory or country (and vice versa). For example, emissions associated with the production of Manitoba crops that are exported to Ontario for processing and sale in an Ontario grocery store are recorded as a trade flow from Manitoba to Ontario. Moving in the opposite direction, emissions associated with the production of motor gasoline in Alberta that is exported to Manitoba for sale are recorded as a trade flow from Alberta to Manitoba. 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/.