Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada, foreign multinationals, by immediate and ultimate investor country
Annual operational, financial, trade, and employment activities of foreign multinational enterprises operating in Canada across 140+ countries, disaggregated on both ultimate and immediate investor basis.
About this dataset
- 144 countries and regional supranational aggregates
- 2 ownership concepts (Ultimate vs Immediate investor country, including Canadian round-tripping)
- 20 descriptive variables covering balance sheets, income statements, trade, jobs, and capital investment
- Annual reference periods from 2010 to 2024
- Canadian multinationals operating abroad (covered in companion Table 36-10-0440-01 and Table 36-10-0470-01)
- Non-corporate sectors: excludes government, households, and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH)
- Unincorporated businesses and residential construction capital formation
- Provincial/territorial breakdown (available in Table 36-10-0620-01)
Measurement notes
- Ultimate ownership identifies the resident country of the ultimate parent enterprise that exercises corporate control, stripping out intermediary pass-through holding companies.
- Immediate ownership identifies the direct cross-border parent entering Canada, capturing the geographic location of intermediate financial conduits.
- Round-tripping identifies enterprises where the immediate cross-border investor is foreign, but the ultimate controlling parent is Canadian.
- 2024 data are preliminary and currently encompass total number of jobs, merchandise exports, and gross fixed capital formation.
| Column | Type | Non-null | Unique | Mean | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REF_DATE | int64 | 100.0% | 15 | 2,017.1 | 2,010.0 | 2,024.0 |
| GEO | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | Canada | Canada |
| DGUID | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | 2021A000011124 | 2021A000011124 |
| Country | object | 100.0% | 144 | — | Afghanistan | Yemen |
| Basis of ownership | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Immediate | Ultimate |
| Descriptive variable | object | 100.0% | 20 | — | Commercial services exports | Total number of jobs |
| UOM | object | 100.0% | 3 | — | Dollars | Persons |
| UOM_ID | int64 | 100.0% | 3 | 96.7 | 81.0 | 249.0 |
| SCALAR_FACTOR | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | millions | units |
| SCALAR_ID | int64 | 100.0% | 2 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 6.0 |
| VECTOR | object | 100.0% | 5760 | — | v1013969482 | v1794783064 |
| COORDINATE | object | 100.0% | 5760 | — | 1.1.1.1 | 1.99.2.9 |
| VALUE | float64 | 38.9% | 9032 | 35,519.7 | -2,699.0 | 3,305,041.0 |
| STATUS | object | 61.1% | 2 | — | .. | x |
| SYMBOL | float64 | 0.0% | 0 | — | — | — |
| TERMINATED | float64 | 0.0% | 0 | — | — | — |
| DECIMALS | int64 | 100.0% | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Descriptive Variable | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial services exports | |||||||||||||||
| Commercial services imports | |||||||||||||||
| Gross domestic product at basic prices (value added) | |||||||||||||||
| Gross fixed capital formation | |||||||||||||||
| Intellectual property | |||||||||||||||
| International technological payments | |||||||||||||||
| International technological receipts | |||||||||||||||
| Intramural research and development expenditures | |||||||||||||||
| Machinery and equipment | |||||||||||||||
| Merchandise exports | |||||||||||||||
| Merchandise imports | |||||||||||||||
| Non-residential construction | |||||||||||||||
| Operating expenses | |||||||||||||||
| Operating profit or loss | |||||||||||||||
| Operating revenues | |||||||||||||||
| Research and development personnel | |||||||||||||||
| Shareholder's equity | |||||||||||||||
| Total assets | |||||||||||||||
| Total liabilities | |||||||||||||||
| Total number of jobs |
Observations
- COVID-19 pandemic employment shock — NOTES.md: COVID-19 pandemic shock
- 2024 preliminary release: US MNE jobs reach 1.71M — NOTES.md: 2024 preliminary release
- Global supply chain & automotive trade contraction — NOTES.md: Trade contraction
- Post-pandemic inflationary commodity & export surge — NOTES.md: Inflationary commodity surge
Ultimate vs. Immediate Ownership: The Conduit Jurisdiction Distortion
Comparing ultimate vs. immediate investor countries uncovers how multinational tax planning and corporate structuring obscure FDI origin. On an immediate basis, conduit jurisdictions such as the Netherlands (369,409 jobs, $342.9B in assets), Luxembourg (133,880 jobs, $218.6B in assets), and Bermuda ($157.2B in assets) appear as top Canadian investors. On an ultimate basis, Netherlands jobs collapse by 90% to 37,337, while Luxembourg drops below the top 15. Tracing to ultimate parents confirms that over 62% of foreign MNE activity in Canada is controlled from the United States, followed by the UK, France, Japan, and Germany.
Round-Tripping: Canadian Multinationals Investing Back into Canada
Round-tripping captures instances where a Canadian corporation routes domestic investments through an offshore subsidiary or holding entity. In 2023, round-tripped enterprises controlled $162.6B CAD in assets (4.9% of total foreign MNE assets in Canada), supported 41,807 Canadian jobs, and generated $8.9B CAD in gross domestic product value-added. This makes Canadian round-tripping the 4th largest asset holder in Canada's foreign MNE universe.
2024 Preliminary Release Scope and Limitations
In the December 2025 release cycle, Statistics Canada provided preliminary 2024 estimates for three core operational indicators: Total number of jobs (2,737,925), Merchandise exports ($401.9B), and Gross fixed capital formation ($87.3B). Comprehensive income statements, balance sheets, GDP value added, and intramural R&D expenditures are benchmarked to Supply-Use tables and will be finalized in subsequent annual releases.
Notes
Foreign MNEs account for 2.74M jobs (36.3% of corporate Canada) and $401.9B in goods exports in 2024; tracing ultimate vs immediate ownership reveals conduit distortions in the Netherlands ($343B assets) and Luxembourg ($219B assets) masking US dominance (62.3% of jobs).
Validation Checks
External: 2.74 million jobs (2,737,925) (Statistics Canada The Daily (2025-12-09): 'Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada and abroad, 2023 (actual) and 2024 (preliminary)')
Exact match: table reports 2,737,925 total jobs for foreign MNEs under 'All countries' in 2024.
External: $401,929 million ($401.9 billion) (Statistics Canada The Daily (2025-12-09): 'Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada and abroad, 2023 (actual) and 2024 (preliminary)')
Exact match: table reports $401,929M CAD in merchandise exports for foreign MNEs in 2024.
External: $265.8 billion (Statistics Canada The Daily (2025-12-09): 'Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada and abroad, 2023 (actual) and 2024 (preliminary)')
Exact match: table reports $265,753M CAD in 2023 value added for US multinationals on an ultimate ownership basis.
External: $1.74 trillion ($1,739.4 billion) (Statistics Canada The Daily (2025-12-09): 'Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada and abroad, 2023 (actual) and 2024 (preliminary)')
Exact match: table reports $1,739,418M CAD in operating revenues for All countries in 2023.
External: 4.9% of assets, 1.5% of jobs (Statistics Canada The Daily (2025-12-09): 'Activities of multinational enterprises in Canada and abroad, 2023 (actual) and 2024 (preliminary)')
Exact match: round-tripping assets of $162,579M / $3,305,041M = 4.92%; jobs of 41,807 / 2,732,460 = 1.53%.