  This paper investigates the demand for lamb, beef, pork, and poultry in
Canada, both at the national level and in disaggregated provinces, to identify
meat consumption patterns in different provinces. Meat consumption plays a
significant role in Canada's economy and is an important source of calories for
the population. However, meat demand faces several consumption challenges due
to logistic constraints, as a significant portion of the supply is imported
from other countries. Therefore, there is a need for a better understanding of
the causal relationships underlying lamb, beef, pork, and poultry consumption
in Canada. Until recently, there have been no attempts to estimate meat
consumption at the provincial level in Canada. Different Almost Ideal Demand
System (AIDS) models have been applied for testing specifications to circumvent
several econometric and theoretical problems. In particular, generalized AIDS
and its Quadratic extension QUAIDS methods have been estimated across each
province using the Iterative Linear Least Squares Estimator (ILLE) estimation
Method. Weekly retail meat consumption price and quantity data from 2019 to
2022 have been used for Canada and for each province namely Quebec, Maritime
provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), Ontario,
total West (Yukon, Northwest Territory and Nunavut), Alberta,
Manitoba-Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as British Columbia. Consistent
coefficients and demand elasticities estimates reveal patterns of substitution
and/or complementarity between the four categories of meat. Meat consumption
patterns differ across each province. Results show that the demand for the four
categories of meat is responsive to price changes. Overall, lamb expenditure
was found to be elastic and thus considered a luxury good during the study
period, while the other three categories are considered normal goods across
Canada.
