Alaska
- 15,800 Alaska jobs depend on trade with Canada
- 2,000 Alaskans are employed by Canadian-owned businesses
- Total Canada–Alaska goods trade: $1.1 billion
Red Dog Mine
Alaska Native businesses reach across the border
Canadian mining companies employ approximately 1,700 Alaskans, earning an average of $87,000 per year. The Red Dog Mine outside of Kotzebue, one of the world’s largest producers of zinc, exemplifies the important role Canadian investments play in Alaska’s resource-driven economy and the value of those activities to local communities.
Owned and operated by BC-based Teck Resources Limited, Red Dog employs 580 year-round workers and generates $52 million in total wages annually.
Red Dog is the largest employer in the Northwest Arctic Borough in terms of annual payroll and second largest in terms of employment. Because of Red Dog’s presence, minerals & metals were Alaska’s largest export to Canada, generating $363 million for the state in 2011.
Mining operation investors, like Teck, also benefited from $114 million worth of equipment machinery imports from Canada in 2011. Red Dog’s permitting process to continue the mine operations for another 20 years is currently under review, with the promise of continued economic opportunities, jobs and exports beneficial to Alaska and Canada.
Working with the Yukon
Fuel distributor Delta Western has several fuel terminals in Alaska including one in Haines. The Haines terminal is situated near the border and is 250 miles from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Three of approximately 10 full-time jobs in the Haines Delta Western facility are supported by fuel sales in the Yukon Territory, a seemingly small number but Haines is a community with a year-round population of approximately 20,000. In the early 1990s an Alaskan company, Totem Oil entered into an agreement with the Yukon Government to fund the construction of additional fuel storage tanks in Haines (jet, heating, vehicle) that would service customers in the Yukon. Delta Western maintains contracts with three oil companies in the Yukon Territory. The introduction of additional fuel sources reduced prices for customers in the Yukon — an additional bonus.
For more information on Alaska’s trade with Canada, please contact:
Consulate General of Canada
1501 4th Avenue, Suite 600 • Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: (206) 443-1777 • Fax: (206) 443-9735
August 2012
Unless otherwise mentioned, all figures are based on 2011 data in U.S. dollars (US$1.00=C$0.9891). Statistics Canada: tourism, based on combined same-day and overnight travel (5/2012 release); goods & services trade (2/2012 release). World Institute for Strategic Economic Research (WISER): Canada’s export ranking (2/2012 release). U.S. Census Bureau: trade (2/2012 release). Services trade data not available at a sub-national level. Figures may not add up due to rounding. Produced by the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C.
Supplemental content
Alaska–Canada facts
Foreign export markets
- % foreign-bound goods sold to Canada: 11%
Merchandise trade
- Alaska exports to Canada: $584 million
- Alaska imports from Canada: $556 million
- Bilateral trade: $1.1 billion
Jobs*
- # jobs that depend on trade with Canada: 15,800
- # employed by Canadian-owned businesses: 2,000
* Job numbers from trade (2010 data) and Canadian-owned businesses (2009 data) are from a 2012 study commissioned by the Government of Canada
Tourism
- Alaska visits by Canadians: 302,300, $158 million spent
- Alaska visits to Canada: 116,600, $45 million spent
Top exports
- Ores, slag & ash: $343 million
- Fish & crustaceans: $90 million
- Fuel oil: $80 million
- Precious metals: $14 million
- Aircraft: $7 million
- Wood & semi-finished wood products: $5 million
- Trucks: $5 million
- Automobiles: $5 million
- Optical, medical & precision instruments: $5 million
- Iron & steel tubes, pipes & sheets: $4 million
- Hoists, derricks & lifting equipment: $2 million
- Furniture & bedding: $1 million
- Rubber & rubber articles: $1 million
Top imports
- Fuel oil: $149 million
- Ores, slag & ash: $128 million
- Compressors & pumps: $22 million
- Crude petroleum: $19 million
- Boilers & parts: $18 million
- Iron & steel tubes, pipes & sheets: $18 million
- Engines & turbines: $14 million
- Optical, medical & precision instruments: $6 million
- Fertilizers: $5 million
- Furniture & bedding: $5 million
- Natural gas & other gases: $5 million
- Salt, sulfur, earth & stone, lime & cement: $4 million
- Plastics & plastic articles: $4 million
Alaska exports $584 million in goods to Canada
- Minerals & metals (62%)
- Agriculture (16%)
- Energy (14%)
- Equipment & machinery (4%)
- Transportation (3%)
- Forest products (1%)
- Other (1%)
Alaska imports $556 million in goods from Canada
- Energy (31%)
- Minerals & metals (28%)
- Equipment & machinery (21%)
- Transportation (3%)
- Chemicals (2%)
- Agriculture (2%)
- Other (13%)
