Bolstered by the surging oil and gas industry, corporate operating profits hit their second straight record in 2005.
Corporations earned operating profits of $249.9 billion, beating the previous record of $217.5 billion, set in 2004, by 14.9 per cent.
The improvement was broadly based, as profits in non-financial industries jumped 17.2 per cent to $186.2 billion and those in the financial industries rose 8.6 per cent to $63.7 billion.
Growth in the non-financial industries was driven by energy-based industries.
Companies in oil-and-gas extraction and support activities, along with utilities operators and petroleum and coal product manufacturers, earned combined profits of $54.5 billion and accounted for almost half of the $27.3-billion growth in non-financial industries.
Interest rates remained near historic lows, much to the benefit of the real estate industry, which grew 6.4 per cent to $8.6 billion, and construction, where operating profits rose 26.9 per cent to $8.4 billion.
The profits of manufacturers edged down 0.9 per cent to $44 billion due to issues such as fierce global competition and a strong Canadian dollar.