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Canadian Business Equipment Investment Statistics

A source-grounded look at Canadian equipment spending intentions, provincial patterns and real investment changes in recent national accounts.

November 12, 2026 5 min read pstinbc.ca Editorial Team

Contents

Canada’s 2026 intentions for machinery and equipment spending point slightly downward, even as overall non-residential capital plans increase. Businesses, governments and institutions intended to spend $127.182 billion on non-residential machinery and equipment in 2026, a 0.6% decrease from the 2025 preliminary estimate. Statistics Canada describes the figures as current-dollar estimates, so the change reflects planned dollar spending and does not by itself show how the quantity of equipment purchased is changing.

The anticipated machinery and equipment decrease was $732.1 million. By contrast, total non-residential capital expenditure intentions were $401.203 billion, up 3.7%. That total includes construction as well as machinery and equipment. Non-residential construction intentions were $274.021 billion, a 5.9% increase. The contrast shows why an overall capital-spending headline cannot be read as an equipment-specific trend: the construction component is larger and was expected to grow while equipment spending edged lower.

These are survey intentions, not final spending results. They describe plans for 2026, compared with a preliminary estimate for 2025, and can differ from realized investment. They also cover non-residential capital expenditures across businesses, governments and institutions rather than business investment alone. Statistics Canada’s 2026 capital expenditure release provides the values and their survey framing.

Canadian business equipment investment statistics: provincial intentions

The national equipment total masks contrasting provincial and territorial plans. Among the provinces, Ontario had the largest 2026 machinery and equipment intentions, at $47.656 billion, but that was 1.2% below its 2025 preliminary estimate. Alberta planned $19.670 billion, down 2.1%, while Saskatchewan planned $6.590 billion, down 5.1%. These declines contrast with British Columbia, where intentions reached $17.513 billion, up 3.1%, and Quebec, with $22.868 billion, up 0.5%.

Several Atlantic provinces also expected increases: Nova Scotia’s intentions were $3.083 billion, up 3.2%. New Brunswick planned $2.755 billion, down 0.3%. Prince Edward Island planned $502.4 million, a 5.7% decrease, and Newfoundland and Labrador planned $1.756 billion, unchanged from the preliminary comparison year.

The territories show further variation. Yukon’s intentions were $207.3 million, up 2.2%, and the Northwest Territories planned $179.8 million, up 11.0%. Nunavut planned $350.3 million, down 22.5%. These percentage changes apply to different-sized spending bases; a large rate of change in a territory does not imply a larger dollar contribution than a modest change in a major province.

All figures in this comparison are 2026 current-dollar intentions for non-residential machinery and equipment, not inflation-adjusted measures or completed purchases. They should be read as regional plans from the same capital expenditure survey, not as separate estimates of realized business investment. The capital expenditure release reports the provincial and territorial values.

Canadian business equipment investment statistics: quarterly GDP-account changes

The real quarterly national accounts offer a different view from the intentions survey. They track inflation-adjusted investment and show that machinery and equipment spending can move sharply from quarter to quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, real business investment in machinery and equipment rose 2.5% from the preceding quarter. Overall real business capital investment still fell 0.7%, marking its fifth consecutive quarterly decline, because investment in engineering structures dropped 4.6%. Equipment therefore provided support within a weaker overall quarter, but did not outweigh the decline in structures. Statistics Canada’s first-quarter 2026 GDP release reports these changes.

In the second quarter of 2026, real business outlays on machinery and equipment expanded 5.2%, the third consecutive quarterly increase. Real non-residential business investment overall rose 2.9%, following declines in three of the previous four quarters. Despite that quarterly recovery, combined real business investment in non-residential structures and machinery and equipment remained just 1.0% above its level in the second quarter of 2025. The quarterly gain and the year-over-year comparison describe different time spans, so both are useful: one shows recent momentum, the other places the level against the same quarter a year earlier. Statistics Canada’s Fall 2026 economic review gives the second-quarter figures.

Recent history includes a pronounced contraction and rebound. Real business machinery and equipment investment fell 9.4% in the second quarter of 2025. Statistics Canada described that as the slowest pace of investment since the end of 2016 outside 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2025, it rose 19.6%, with the release identifying computers as the primary source of the increase. These quarter-over-quarter movements are volatile and do not alone establish a lasting trend. For the full year 2025, real business machinery and equipment investment declined 3.5%. The second-quarter 2025 release and the fourth-quarter 2025 release provide the quarterly and annual figures.

Canadian business equipment investment statistics: annual equipment-category changes

Annual category results help explain why the overall machinery and equipment figure can conceal opposing movements. In 2025, real business investment in industrial machinery and equipment fell 9.5%. Investment in aircraft and other transportation equipment declined 15.5%. In contrast, investment in computers and computer peripherals rose 14.1%, its largest increase since 2011. The computer gain is consistent with the fourth-quarter release’s description of computers as the primary source of that quarter’s machinery and equipment increase, though the annual and quarterly figures cover different periods.

These are real annual changes in specific asset categories, not current-dollar intentions or counts of equipment purchases. The category declines and increase can coexist within a 3.5% annual decline in overall real business machinery and equipment investment. They indicate that 2025 was uneven across asset types; the available figures do not establish what caused each change or how spending was distributed among individual businesses. Statistics Canada’s 2025 provincial and territorial economic accounts release reports the category movements and annual context.

Reading the measures together

The survey and national accounts answer different questions. The capital expenditure survey gives current-dollar plans for non-residential assets, including government and institutional expenditures; its 2026 figures are intentions compared with preliminary 2025 estimates. The GDP accounts report real business investment, adjusted for price changes, and make it possible to compare quarterly changes and annual asset-category movements.

Taken together, the evidence points to a modestly lower national equipment spending plan for 2026, with provincial plans moving in both directions. The recent real accounts show a rebound in machinery and equipment investment during the first half of 2026 after a sharp fall in 2025, while full-year 2025 investment remained lower and category results diverged. These measures are complementary, but their nominal versus real basis, coverage, and time periods must remain distinct when interpreting Canadian business equipment investment statistics.

Sources

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