Annual report from Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association reinforces the telecom industry’s economic and community impact

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) recently released its annual report on the telecoms industry’s economic contribution to Canada. Our economic and community impact is far-reaching – from the suppliers we use, to the networks we build, the content we create and the people we employ – we work hard every day to make our country stronger. This study looks at the industry contributions due to spending by providers (direct), spending by our suppliers (indirect) and spending by employees of providers and suppliers in their communities (induced).

The pandemic has made it clear that connectivity is more important than ever. Service providers have invested about $220B since 1987 to build and maintain Canada’s resilient networks, which have kept us all connected so we can work, learn and socialize while staying home and staying safe. And we will play a key role to in helping Canada build back better in the coming months and years  – contributing billions to the economy, creating and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and ensuring that Canadians benefit from the latest technology advances, like 5G. 

Industry contribution by the numbers in 2019

• Directly contributed an estimated $74.5B to Canada’s GDP  – 3.7% of our annual GDP
• Will contribute $199B – $235B in direct, indirect, and induced GDP to the Canadian economy cumulatively over the next five years
• Sustains 300K – 350K jobs annually through direct, indirect and induced contributions (we could say value chain instead of direct, indirect and induced)
• Every $1M in telecommunications sales results in 4.2 new jobs created in the Canadian economy.

You can read the full report here.