Report Of Canada (0)

Tallinn English College
Report of Canada 8a
Teacher: Merike Sisask Composer: Kärt Kalvet
2010 Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
Canada General Information Canada is in North America. It's area is 9220970 sq km. Canada's population is 313.612.000 people. Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. The capital of Canada is Ottawa . Canada has constitutional monarchy. The head of state in Canada's government is the Queen of England . There are two main languages in Canada: English and French . Canada's curreny is Canadian dollar (1 dollar=100 cents[Can$]). The highest peak of Canada is Mount Logan , 5959 metres . The lowest point is sea level. The longest river is the Mackenzie . The climate and geography of Canada vary greatly from temperate in the south to arctic in the north and from islands and plains in the east to mountains in the west .
Location Canada is located in the northern -most region of North America. It's geographical position in co- ordinates is 83°N north, 42°N south, 53°W east, 141°W west. Canada borders with United States of America by land ; Pacific Ocean , Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean by coastline. Canada is one of the largest countries in the world, second only to Russia in territorial size . It has a total area of 9.9 million square kilometers. This includes 755,170 square kilometers of water. Toronto is the largest city in Canada with a population of 4.3 million. Other major cities include Montreal (3.3 million people), Vancouver (1.8 million people). Located in the southeast corner of the nation , Ottawa is the nation's capital.
Relief Canada is a vast country comprised of a multitude of very different landscapes : Atlantic provinces, the Appalachians, St. Lawrence and Great Lakes lowlands, Canadian Shield , The Prairies , mountain ranges and high plateaus of the Canadian Cordillera, and northern Canada.
Climate Canada's climate varies wildly based on geography, from perma -frost in the north to four distinct seasons towards the equator. In this region the temperature can climb up to 35 degrees Celsius in the summer and descend to a chilly -25 degrees Celsius during winter . Canada's climate and environment are one of the main reasons that Canada is such a succesful country. The blend of natural resources and climate sustains us. The seasons dictate the look of the land : according to whether the natural environment is in a state of dormancy or growth . Canada's climate is characterized by its diversity , as temperature and precipitation differ depending on where you are and what time of year it is. Other than the North where it's above freezing for only a few months a year, most Canadian cities are within 300 km of the southern border, where mild springs , hot summers and pleasantly crisp autumns are common during the majority of the year. Climate sculpts the landscape through heat , cold , humidity, light and wind. In Canada, the variety of landscapes shows the diversity of our climate. In the north, low precipitation and cold temperatures favour permafrost and suppress vegetation growth, resulting in treeless tundra . South of the tundra, on the Canadian Shield, summers are short and warm , and winters are long and cold. Annual precipitation is abundant, allowing coniferous forests to establish and grow . On the Pacific coast, the combination of heavy rainfall and mild temperatures year round supports Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
temperate rain forests. On the Prairies, the large number of days of sunshine affects the development of the agricultural landscape. In the Maritimes, the Atlantic Ocean moderates the climate such that winters are generally long and mild, and summers are short and cool. These conditions help in the development of forests. Finally , around the Great Lakes and alongside the St. Lawrence River as far downstream as the city of Québec, the climate is characterized by relatively warm summers and cool winters, moderated by surrounding water bodies. These conditions are suitable to the development of mixed wood and broadleaf forests.
Mineral Resources Mining and fuel extraction and production accounted for 4.5 percent of Canada's GDP or some US$36.1 billion . Fuel exploration and production dominate this sector, but the processing of other types of mineral resources has grown significantly. In 1996, the top non-fuel minerals were gold with production of US$2.05 billion, copper US$1.47 billion, nickel US$1.45 billion, and zinc US$1.25 billion. There was also significant production of lead and iron . There are about 50 major gold mines in Canada and the country leads the world in technologies which extract gold from rock and soil . The nation is the world's largest producer of zinc and the fifth largest producer of lead. Among the provinces, Ontario is the top producer of non-fuel mineral resources, followed by Quebec , British Columbia , Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland . Each year Canadian companies spend over US$600 million to find or develop new mines and fuel supplies. However , environmental concerns and increased regulation have led many Canadian mining companies to shift exploration elsewhere. Latin America is becoming a favorite choice for Canadian mining companies. While overall mineral production is dispersed throughout Canada, fuel production is concentrated in the west, with a few major exceptions. Canada is a major exporter of energy and fuels . In 1998, natural gas was the main export with 34.2 percent of total, petroleum was next at 28.6 percent, hydroelectricity at 20.7 percent, coal at 11.4 percent, and atomic energy at 5.1 percent. The United States has traditionally been Canada's largest market for energy exports, purchasing 90 percent of the nation's fuel and energy exports. Energy production accounts for 8 percent of the nation's economy . Approximately 65 percent of energy production is in Alberta , which is also the home of the nation's oil industry. The number-two producer was British Columbia at 13 percent, followed by Saskatchewan at 8 percent, and Quebec at 5 percent. The atomic industry is centered in Quebec.
Economy Canada has the seventh-largest economy in the world. Most of the businesses are privately- owned, although the government does play a major role in the health-care system and operates many services including transportation and utility companies. The Canadian economy is diverse and highly developed. It is very similar to the American economy, although smaller in size. In the aftermath of World War II, the nation was transformed from a rural economy, based on agriculture , to one based on industry and mining. The nation's economy has been further transformed since the 1970s and services now provide the main economic output. The foundation of the Canadian economy is foreign trade and the United States is by far the nation's largest trade partner . Foreign trade is responsible for about 45 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). Free trade agreements between the 2 nations have increased trade by eliminating tariffs. Each day approximately US$1 billion worth of goods crosses the U.S.- Canadian border. To understand the scale of U.S.-Canadian trade, it is important to point out that the United States sends more products to Canada than it does to all of Latin America. Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
Like Americans, Canadians tend to have high levels of disposable income . This disposable income drives the Canadian economy as consumers spend their excess wages on a variety of products and services. This creates demand for increased production and the development of new products, which also means more and better-paying jobs . Also like the United States, advertising has a major impact on Canadian consumer spending. Television is the number-one form of advertising in Canada. The nation's infrastructure is excellent and most of its factories and manufacturing plants are modern. In fact , Canada's transportation network is ranked as the best in the world by the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. Canada has a variety of natural resources, including petroleum and natural gas, and a variety of metals and minerals. Over the past decade, Canada has also emerged as one of the leading nations in the high- tech and computer industry. Most of this growth has occurred in central Canada, mainly Ontario and Quebec, and is responsible for the increased migration of people to these areas . Much of the economic growth in Canada today is fueled by small-to mediumsized companies. Because Canada has abundant energy resources, the global oil crisis which began in 1999 has helped its energy companies increase their outputs and profits. The nation has abundant natural resources that include iron ore, nickel, copper, zinc, gold, lead, silver, timber , fish , coal, petroleum, natural gas, and hydropower . Regionally, the Canadian economy varies greatly. In the Eastern provinces, marine industries-- including fishing , telecommunications, and energy production--are the main components of the economy. In the French-speaking region of Quebec, the city of Montreal has become one of the nation's centers for high-technology firms . This includes a large number of computer software companies. There is also a large industrial base which includes companies that produce pharmaceuticals, aerospace products, and telecommunications equipment. Ontario is the nation's main industrial center . About half of all Canadian manufactured goods are produced in Ontario. The province is second only to Michigan as the largest producer of automobiles and car parts in North America. Ottawa, the nation's capital, is located in Ontario. Other industries include chemicals , aerospace, steel, and food processing. The plains (or prairie) provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are the home to four-fifths of Canada's agricultural lands. They are also the home to the majority of mining and fuel production. Alberta itself provides 90 percent of the nation's energy exports and is the home of Canada's oil and natural gas industry. British Columbia is in the Pacific Northwest. Forestry and tourism were traditionally the main elements of the region's economy, but financial services, including banking and insurance , have grown dramatically over the past decade. There is also a growing high-tech sector that is bolstered by the province's proximity to American firms such as Microsoft in the state of Washington. The Northern territories of the nation comprise one-third of its total size, but are home to only 100,000 people. These areas are home to Canada's Native American population, many of whom continue to follow traditional lifestyles based on hunting and fishing. Mining is the principal industry and there has been steady growth in diamond mining and finishing . Tourism also provides a substantial part of the region's economy. Each of the nation's main economic sectors is highly developed. Although the agricultural sector is small, it takes advantage of the nation's generous natural resources. Increasingly, agriculture and fishing are concentrated in certain geographic regions of the country, mainly the west and southeast. The United States is the main market for all Canadian agricultural exports. In addition , the United States is the main destination for most of Canada's timber exports. Canada is also a major supplier of energy resources, including electricity and petroleum, to the United States. Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
While industry has declined since the 1970s, it remains an important component of the country's economy. Automobile products provide one of Canada's principal exports, but the nation also produces a variety of consumer products and machinery. Nonetheless, large companies such as Ford and General Motors provide a significant percentage of the nation's industrial output. Services have seen the most dramatic growth in the Canadian economy over the past 2 decades. In addition to consumer-based businesses such as retail and tourism, financial services and telecommunications firms have grown dramatically. The government has offered significant support to these new technologies. For instance , the government has supported the development and installation of the only fiber- optic network in the world which carries only Internet traffic. The system, CA*Net3, will have 16 times the capacity of the largest U.S. system. Budget surpluses over the past 3 years have allowed the government to begin paying down Canada's national debt . The debt has been reduced by Can$19 billion, and in 2000 it stood at Can$565 billion. The surpluses have also allowed the government to spend more on federal programs and to reduce some taxes . The nation is a net donor of foreign aid. In 1997, it provided US$2.1 billion in international aid. There are several potential problems facing the Canadian economy. The most significant is the continuing question over the status of Quebec. Should Quebec become independent, it would significantly disrupt the Canadian economy, and the nation would lose a sizable proportion of its GDP. The second most pressing problem for Canada has been the migration of some of its best educated and trained workers to the United States. This " brain drain" is the result of lower taxes and higher wages in the United States. Finally, Canada's dependence on trade makes it vulnerable to slow downs in the economies of its major trade partners . This is especially true of the United States. In the 20th century , when the United States experienced economic recessions or depressions, Canada soon after suffered similar economic problems.
Industry Although the automotive industry is the dominant industrial force in Canada, the nation's industrial base is highly diversified. In addition to the manufacture of cars and car parts, major Canadian industries include electronics, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, chemicals, and petroleum and natural gas. Manufacturing accounts for about 18 percent of total industrial output. The most significant growth areas in industry are electronics, which grew by 15 percent in 2000, communications with 7.5 percent growth, furniture and fixtures with 7.4 percent growth, and crude oil and natural gas, which grew by 4.5 percent. Meanwhile transportation equipment declined by 5 percent while textiles were off by 3 percent.
Geographical regions Canada is divided into very distinct regions, each with a very different landscape and climate. The Pacific Coast - The Cordillera Bathed by warm Pacific air currents, the British Columbia coast, indented by deep fiords and shielded from the Pacific storms by Vancouver Island , has the most moderate climate of Canada's regions. Vancouver Island's west coast receives an exceptional amount of rain, giving it a temperate rain forest climate. Although it does not contain the diversity of species of a tropical rain forest, the island's west coast does have the oldest and tallest trees in Canada: western red cedars 1,300 years old and Douglas firs over 90 metres high. Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
From British Columbia to just east of the Alberta border the land is young, with rugged mountains and high plateaus. Signs of geologically recent volcanic activity can be seen in Garibaldi Provincial Park in southern British Columbia and at Mount Edziza in the north. The Rocky Mountains, the Coast Mountains and other ranges, running north to south, posed major engineering problems for the builders of the transcontinental railways and highways. Canada's highest peaks, however, are not in the Rockies, but in the St. Elias Mountains, an extension of the Cordillera stretching north into the Yukon and Alaska . The highest point in Canada, mount Logan, rises amid a huge icefield in the southwest corner of Yukon, the largest icecap south of the Arctic Circle. The British Columbia interior varies from alpine snowfields to deep valleys where desert -like conditions prevail. On the leeward side of the mountains, for example, a rain- shadow effect is created, forcing Okanagan Valley farmers to irrigate their orchards and vineyards. The Interior Plains - The Prairies To drive across the Prairies is to see endless fields of wheat and canola ripening under a sky that seems to go on forever . The plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are among the richest grain-producing regions in the world. Yet even here are surprises. If you leave the road at Brooks, Alberta, and drive north, you descend into the Red Deer River valley. Here, in desert-like conditions, water and wind have created strange shapes in the sandstone called "hoodoos." The same forces of erosion have uncovered some of the largest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world. Alberta is Canada's leading producer of petroleum. The sedimentary rocks underlying the Prairies have important deposits of oil, natural gas and potash. The Canadian Shield A huge inland sea called Hudson Bay extends into the heart of Canada, and wrapped around this bay is a rocky region called the Canadian Shield. Canada's largest geographical feature, it stretches east to Labrador , south to Kingston on Lake Ontario and northwest as far as the Arctic Ocean. The Shield is considered to be the nucleus of the North American continent and is made up of roots of ancient mountains. Its gneiss and granite rocks are 3.5 billion years old, three quarters the age of the Earth. Scraped by the advance and retreat of glaciers, the Shield has only a thin layer of soil that supports a boreal forest of spruce, fir, tamarack and pine . The region is a storehouse of minerals, including gold, silver, zinc, copper and uranium, and Canada's great mining towns are located there: Sudbury and Timmins in Ontario, Val d'Or in Quebec, and Flin Flon and Thompson in Manitoba. St. Lawrence Lowlands - The Great Lakes Southern Quebec and Ontario, the industrial heartland of Canada, contain Canada's two largest cities, Montreal and Toronto. In this small region, 50 percent of Canadians live and 70 percent of Canada's manufactured goods are produced. The region also has prime agricultural land, for example the Niagara Peninsula. The large expanses of lakes Erie and Ontario extend the number of frost-free days, permitting the cultivation of grapes, peaches, pears and other fruits. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region is sugar maple country. In the autumn , the tree's leaves, Canada's national symbol , are ablaze in red, orange and gold. The sap is collected in Canada, Kärt Kalvet 8a
spring and evaporated to make maple syrup and sugar, a culinary delicacy first prepared and used by the Aboriginal North American peoples. Appalachian Region - The Atlantic Provinces New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are the smallest Canadian provinces, and were the first to be settled by Europeans. Evidence of contact as far back as AD 1000 has been found at a Norse settlement at l'Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland. The Grand Banks have been called the "wheat fields" of Newfoundland. This hallow continental shelf extends 400 km off the east coast, where the mixing of ocean currents has created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Once thought to contain a virtually inexhaustible supply of fish, the Banks are now considered a vulnerable resource that must be wisely managed . The Atlantic provinces are an extension of the Appalachians, an ancient mountain range. Much of the region has low, rugged hills and plateaus, and a deeply indented coastline. Agriculture flourishes in the fertile valleys, such as the Saint John River Valley, New Brunswick, and the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has a gently rolling landscape with a rich , red soil. This fertile island is Canada's smallest province, making up a mere 0.1 percent of Canada's land mass. The Arctic Lowlands - Innuitian Region North of the tree line is a land of harsh beauty . During the short summer, when daylight is nearly continuous and a profusion of flowers blooms on the tundra, the temperature can reach 30°C. Yet the winters are long, bitterly cold, dark and unforgiving. The Arctic is no longer an inaccessible frontier. Inuvik, in the Mackenzie delta, can be reached by road, and every community is served by air. Most have electricity, stores and health services. North of the mainland is a maze of islands separated by convoluted straits and sounds, the most famous of which link together to form the fabled Northwest Passage , the route to the Orient sought by so many early explorers. Reflecting a growing autonomy, the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos) are gradually changing place names into their language , Inuktitut. For example, the people of Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, Nunavut , decided to rename their community Iqualuit, which means "place of fish."
Used materials:
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Canada.html http://www.google.ee/#hl=et&q=Canada+relief&lr=&aq=f&oq=Canada+relief&fp=9d88 a292ff611cf4 http://www.members.shaw.ca/kcic1/geographic.html http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Canada.html (I also used the links from this page: Overview of economy; Industry; Economic sectors.) http://www.yourcanada.ca/climate/ http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/climate