Energy
- End-use (Utilisation finale): Any specific activity that requires energy (e.g., refrigeration, space heating, water heating, manufacturing processes and feedstock).
- Energy efficiency (Efficacité énergétique): This term refers to how effectively energy is being used for a given purpose. For example, providing a similar (or better) level of service with less energy consumption on a per unit basis is considered an improvement in energy efficiency.
- Energy intensity (Intensité énergétique): The amount of energy used per unit of activity. Examples of activity measures are households, floor space, passenger-kilometres, tonne-kilometres, physical units of production and constant dollar value of gross domestic product.
- Primary energy use (Consommation d'énergie primaire): Represents the total requirement for all uses of energy, including energy used by the final consumer, non-energy uses, intermediate uses of energy, energy in transforming one energy form to another (e.g. coal to electricity), and energy used by suppliers in providing energy to the market (e.g. pipeline fuel).
- Secondary energy use (Consommation d'énergie secondaire): Energy used by final consumers for residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial and transportation purposes.
Measures
- Gigajoule (Gigajoule): One gigajoule equals 1 x 109 joules.
- Megajoule (Mégajoule): One megajoule equals 1 x 106 joules.
- Passenger-kilometre (Pkm) (Voyageur-kilomètre): An activity measure in the passenger transportation sub-sector describing the transportation of one passenger over a distance of one kilometre.
- Petajoule (Petajoule): One petajoule equals 1 x 1015 joules. A joule is the international unit of measure of energy – the energy produced by the power of one watt flowing for a second. There are 3.6 million joules in one kilowatt-hour.
- Terajoule (TJ) (Térajoule [TJ]): One terajoule equals 1 x 1012 joules.
- Tonne-kilometre (Tkm)(Tonne-kilomètre): An activity measure in the freight transportation sub-sector describing the transportation of one tonne over a distance of one kilometre.
Other
- Floor space (area) (Surface de plancher [superficie]): The area enclosed by exterior walls of a building, measured in square metres. In the residential sector, it excludes parking areas, basements or other floors below ground level; these areas are included in the commercial/institutional sector.
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) (Gaz à effet de serre [GES]): A greenhouse gas absorbs and radiates heat in the lower atmosphere that otherwise would be lost in space. The greenhouse effect is essential for life on this planet since it keeps average global temperatures high enough to support plant and animal growth. The main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxide (N20). By far the most abundant greenhouse gas is CO2, accounting for 70 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
- Gross domestic product (GDP) (Produit intérieur brut [PIB]): The total value of goods and services produced within Canada during a given year. Also referred to as annual economic output or, more simply, output. To avoid counting the same output more than once, GDP includes only final goods and services – not those that are used to make another product. GDP figures are reported in constant 2002 dollars.
- Household (Ménage): A person or a group of people occupying one dwelling unit is defined as a household. The number of households will, therefore, be equal to the number of occupied dwellings.
- Sector (Secteur): The broadest category for which energy consumption and intensity are considered within the Canadian economy (e.g., residential, commercial/institutional, industrial, transportation, agriculture and electricity generation).