SVG is a series of drawing commands (with transformations, filters, and so on). Which is exactly what canvas is. With appropriate layer caching of course it can be 100% as fast if the rudiments are similar and in the same context[1], and on many platforms it is. Chromium derivatives have a particularly slow implementation of SVG and it has tainted the whole realm.

[1] Obviously if you're zooming and transforming and animating layers there is going to be a cost, but that should be compared with doing the same with a canvas.