The sectors of the economy that are tied directly to natural resources, such as the gas, oil and lumber industries that you mentioned, but also the mining industries (including coal, gold, nickel, copper, diamonds, uranium, etc.) as well as the fishing industry are certainly important but all totalled add up to only the proverbial "drop in a bucket" when viewing the Canadian economy as a whole. Fewer than 4% of Canadians work in these fields and they amount to only about 6% of Canada's GDP. In contrast, the manufacturing sector makes up about 13% of Canada's ecomomic output, with the service sector contributing a whopping 78% of GDP and employing three out of every four Canadians! The service sector's retail component alone accounts for more than 12% of Canadian employment ... 3 times more than the fishing, mining, timber, and energy industries employ combined.