Fast Facts

The industry’s annual revenues total $2.3 billion.
Source: Statistics Canada, Summary Statistics for Testing Laboratories, 2010

There are about 2,700 testing laboratory facilities in Canada.
Source: Statistics Canada, Summary Statistics for Testing Laboratories, 2010

The industry is concentrated in four provinces – Alberta has 39% of total lab facilities, Ontario has 28%, followed by B.C. at 15% and Quebec at 12%.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Patterns, June 2011

Lab clusters, or locations where there is a concentration of lab operations, are evident in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Patterns, June 2011

The industry is made up of many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). About three-quarters of all lab facilities in Canada have fewer than 10 employees. Across the country, there are only 12 lab locations with 200 or more employees.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Patterns, June 2011

The testing laboratories industry in Canada employs about 20,000 people.
Source: CCIL based on Statistics Canada data

Testing laboratories are a knowledge-based industry. Over 40% of the industry’s employees are university graduates, largely with science and engineering degrees.
Source: CCIL based on Statistics Canada data

The industry pays about $975 million a year in wages, salaries and benefits.
Source: Statistics Canada, Summary Statistics for Testing Laboratories, 2010

Testing labs are labour-intensive businesses. Salaries, wages and benefits account for about one-half (47%) of the industry’s operating expenses.
Source: Statistics Canada, Summary Statistics for Testing Laboratories, 2010

The average annual salary per employee is about $50,000.
Source: CCIL based on Statistics Canada data

The industry provides “high-value employment with average wages and salaries greater than those found in the economy as a whole.”
Statistics Canada, Innovation in Selected Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, 2005

GDP in the testing laboratories industry increased more than 20% between 2005 and 2011 – compared to an increase of 9% for the overall economy during the same period.
Source: CCIL based on Statistics Canada data

Testing labs serve a vast array of customers across the economic spectrum, including:
  • Road building
  • ICI and residential construction
  • Environmental
  • Water and waste water
  • Automobile
  • Mining
  • Pulp and paper
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Oil and gas
  • Manufacturing
  • Metals production
  • Biotechnology/life sciences
The types of testing services provided by the industry in Canada include:
Source: Statistics Canada

  • Assaying
  • Automobile proving and testing ground
  • Biological (except clinical and veterinary)
  • Calibration and certification
  • Electrical
  • Environmental
  • Construction materials
  • Film badge
  • Fire insurance underwriters’ laboratories
  • Food
  • Forensic
  • Geotechnical
  • Hydrostatic
  • Industrial
  • Mechanical
  • Metallurgical
  • Non-destructive
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Product testing
  • Radiation
  • Radiographic
  • Radon
  • Seed
  • Soil
  • Thermal
  • Vibration
  • X-ray