page_title: Coal in Canada
section_title: Economic impact
hierarchical_section_title: Coal in Canada / Economic impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Coal production in Canada, 1940-2012
context_page_description: Coal reserves in Canada rank thirteenth largest in the world at approximately 10 billion tons, 0.6% of the world total. This represents more energy than all of the oil and gas in the country combined. The coal industry generates CDN$5 billion annually. Most of Canada's coal mining occurs in the West of the country. British Columbia operates 9 coal mines, Alberta 9, Saskatchewan 3 and New Brunswick one. Nova Scotia operates several small-scale mines, Westray having closed following the 1992 disaster there.
  In 2005, Canada produced 67.3 million tons of coal and its consumption was 60 million tons. Of this 56 million tons were used for electricity generation. The remaining 4 million tons was used in the steel, concrete and other industries. The largest consumers of coal in Canada were Alberta and Ontario. In 1997, Alberta accounted for 47% of Canada's coal consumption at 26.2 million tons, and Ontario accounted for 25% at 13.8 million tons. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick also use coal to generate electricity to varying degrees.
context_section_description: In 2016, "mining, processing, and related services from thermal and metallurgical coal contributed an estimated $4 billion to Canada's economy, or roughly 0,2%. of Canada's GDP," according to Natural Resources Canada. NRC reported that about 50 percent of this "GDP contribution came from metallurgical coal" and, in comparison, "clean energy accounted for 1.3% of Canada’s GDP."
caption: Coal production in Canada, 1940–2012
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