But, as we just saw, economies are constantly evolving. Growth in Canada’s economy, which was based on trade in natural resources in its early years, is now driven mainly by service industries. Roughly 80 per cent of Canadians are now employed in services, and trade in services has been growing at a much faster pace than goods.
Today, we sell about $ billion per year in services to the world. For example, Canada is a world leader in the mining services sector, with almost 4,000 companies providing engineering, environmental and other professional services. These categories had exports worth about $ billion last year.