Canada’s gross domestic product contracted at the fastest pace in more than seven years in May as wildfires curbed Alberta oil production. Canada’s gross domestic product contracted at the fastest pace in more than seven years in May as wildfires curbed Alberta oil production. The economy shrank 0.6 percent after an April expansion of 0.1 percent, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for a 0.5 percent contraction. The drop was “primarily due” to the record 22 percent plunge in non-conventional oil production, the agency’s report said. Excluding non-conventional oil, output shrank by 0.1 percent in May. Manufacturing fell by 2.4 percent, also the fastest since 2009, on disruption to transportation equipment makers and a 15 percent drop at oil refineries. The wildfires are another chapter in a long-delayed economic recovery following years of weak global demand and a more recent plunge […]