Lesson 18 — Activity 1: Why Canada Imports Goods

As you learned previously, the economy of any country is a large system that has many parts. Canada exports products and resources all over the world. Remember that exports refers to items that are made in Canada and sent to other parts of the world to be purchased. Canada also imports other products and resources from many other countries. An example of an import to Canada would be bananas. They are grown in another country and brought to Canada to be purchased by Canadians.

In this activity, you will learn why Canada imports goods.

In Canada and in all other countries, the economy must answer three basic questions. These three basic questions must also be answered by every family or group of people living together:

Think about your own situation. The basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing must be met somehow.

In early times in Canada, settlers would meet most of their basic needs by themselves. They would grow their own food, make their own clothing, and build their own houses. Certain items had to be bought, like tea, cloth for clothes, and tools. But the pioneers were quite self-sufficient, which means they looked after most of their own basic needs. The pioneers did not have to rely on other people to meet most of these needs.

In today's world, most people are not self-sufficient. Instead, they work at one specific job and earn money to buy the things they need. Most people depend on stores to sell them the items they require. This means that people today rely more on each other than they did in the past. For example, most people would have a hard time surviving if all stores selling food were suddenly closed. They would not have the tools, knowledge, land, or time to grow and process their own food.

Just as we depend on others to get the things we need, countries also import the goods they need from other countries. In the past, countries could only produce things with the resources from their own region. Most countries were quite self-sufficient. However, nowadays countries can import things from all over the world, which allows them to make a larger variety of goods. Countries are now interdependent, which means they all rely or depend on each other.

Self-check!

Digging Deeper!