The Northwest Territories’ gross domestic product declined by 1.1 percent in 2024, initial Statistics Canada figures show – the only Canadian jurisdiction to see GDP shrink in each of the past two years.
Statistics Canada releases two GDP assessments each year: an initial estimate in the spring and a more refined figure in the fall.
The two can sometimes differ significantly, so the initial estimate – released last week – should be handled with care.
Even so, it paints a picture of an NWT economy that is to some extent decoupled from the rest of Canada.
Last week’s estimate, which measures the change in quantity of goods and services produced in the territory (but not change in price), showed the economy fell by 1.1 percent after contracting by 0.4 percent in 2023.
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The Yukon was the only other Canadian jurisdiction to post a decline in 2024, a 3.3-percent drop that the Yukon’s statistics bureau attributed to changes in mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction.
The story was similar in the NWT. The territory’s bureau of statistics said oil and gas extraction dropped by 3.9 percent in 2024, while diamond mining fell by 11.6 percent. Support activities for those industries also fell but, unlike in the Yukon, construction increased in the NWT by 6.7 percent year on year.
The NWT’s economy has shown a split since 2021 whereby goods production is falling annually but the services sector is steadily growing.
“Most services-sector industries increased in 2024. Educational services increased by 4.6%, while wholesale trade (2.8%) and retail trade (2.0%) rose between 2023 and 2024,” the NWT Bureau of Statistics reported.
“Transportation and warehousing increased by 1.8%, largely stemming from an increase in air transportation.”
Nunavut had the largest GDP growth among provinces and territories, at 7.5 percent.
