AB had largest loss of active businesses since 2019

Late last month, Statistics Canada released data on active businesses in Canada, and I thought I’d go through it to see how Alberta fared.

The most recent data is September 2023, so keep that in mind.

First, here’s the number of active businesses in each province, as of September 2023.

ON	357,550
QC	199,270
BC	153,930
AB	119,137
MB	28,450
SK	24,684
NS	20,543
NB	17,272
NL	12,589
PEI	4,221

Alberta came in fourth place, which shouldn’t be that surprising given that it has the fourth highest population as well.

Now, let’s look at how that number compares to the past. First, over the previous month.

	Aug 2023	Sep 2023	Change	% change
PEI	4,221	4,221	0	0.00%
NL	12,608	12,589	-19	-0.15%
NB	17,342	17,272	-70	-0.40%
NS	20,625	20,543	-82	-0.40%
MB	28,555	28,450	-105	-0.37%
SK	24,990	24,684	-306	-1.22%
AB	119,575	119,137	-438	-0.37%
BC	155,093	153,930	-1,163	-0.75%
ON	359,362	357,550	-1,812	-0.50%
QC	201,817	199,270	-2,547	-1.26%

Between August and September 2023, only one province—Prince Edward Island—didn’t see a decrease in the number of active businesses. Even then, PEI didn’t see an increase either.

The four largest provinces saw the fourth largest decreases, with Québec being in last place (over 2,500 lost) and Alberta having the fourth largest loss (over 400).

Alberta had the second smallest percentage based decrease.

Now let’s take a look at how things changed in each province over the past year.

	Sep 2022	Sep 2023	Change	% change
AB	118,540	119,137	597	0.50%
PEI	4,143	4,221	78	1.88%
NS	20,533	20,543	10	0.05%
MB	28,514	28,450	-64	-0.22%
NL	12,660	12,589	-71	-0.56%
NB	17,355	17,272	-83	-0.48%
SK	24,978	24,684	-294	-1.18%
ON	357,933	357,550	-383	-0.11%
QC	200,622	199,270	-1,352	-0.67%
BC	155,348	153,930	-1,418	-0.91%

Alberta gained nearly 600 active businesses over this 12-month period, the largest increase the country. In fact, Alberta was one of only 3 provinces that saw an increase in the number of active businesses during this period.

British Columbia saw the largest drop in their number of active businesses drop over the last year, at over 1,400.

Since September 2022, the number of active businesses in Alberta increased by 0.50%, which drops the province slightly to the second largest increase among all provinces.

The story worsens slightly for Alberta when comparing 2 years.

	Sep 2021	Sep 2023	Change	% change
ON	345,185	357,550	12,365	3.58%
QC	196,085	199,270	3,185	1.62%
AB	116,855	119,137	2,282	1.95%
BC	151,861	153,930	2,069	1.36%
NS	20,059	20,543	484	2.41%
MB	28,086	28,450	364	1.30%
PEI	3,942	4,221	279	7.08%
NB	17,070	17,272	202	1.18%
NL	12,545	12,589	44	0.35%
SK	24,771	24,684	-87	-0.35%

Alberta’s increase of 2,200 active businesses over the last 2 years drops it to 3rd place; however, they drop to 4th place on a percentage basis (1.95%).

Ontario had the largest increase of all the provinces, in terms of absolute numbers (over 12,000), while PEI saw the largest increase in percentage of new active businesses (7.08%).

Now, let’s look at active businesses over the last 3 years. Things aren’t a whole lot better for Alberta.

	Sep 2020	Sep 2023	Change	% change
ON	322,208	357,550	35,342	10.97%
QC	186,480	199,270	12,790	6.86%
BC	141,167	153,930	12,763	9.04%
AB	111,384	119,137	7,753	6.96%
NS	19,161	20,543	1,382	7.21%
MB	27,143	28,450	1,307	4.82%
SK	23,609	24,684	1,075	4.55%
NB	16,611	17,272	661	3.98%
PEI	3,769	4,221	452	11.99%
NL	12,354	12,589	235	1.90%

Alberta saw a massive increase during that 3-year period, seeing over 7,500 more active businesses. It wasn’t large enough to take them out of 4th place, however, being surpassed once again by the 3 larger provinces. Ontario grew their active businesses by over 35,000, a 10.94% increase, compared to Alberta’s 6.96%.

Spoeaking of percentage increases, Alberta’s was so low, that the province drops from 4th place to 5th place.

Let’s move on to September 2019.

	Sep 2019	Sep 2023	Change	% change
ON	349,081	357,550	8,469	2.43%
QC	193,465	199,270	5,805	3.00%
BC	148,925	153,930	5,005	3.36%
MB	27,850	28,450	600	2.15%
NS	20,168	20,543	375	1.86%
PEI	3,986	4,221	235	5.90%
NB	17,436	17,272	-164	-0.94%
SK	25,056	24,684	-372	-1.48%
NL	13,308	12,589	-719	-5.40%
AB	119,865	119,137	-728	-0.61%

Ouch.

Alberta saw the largest drop in the total number of active businesses between September 2019 and September 2023.

The ironic thing is that September 2019 was the third month after Alberta’s UCP government implemented their so-called Job Creation Tax Cut. When they implemented it, they claimed it would lead to tens of thousands of more jobs being created.

However, what we see is that in the 4 years since the UCP government cut the tax rate on corporate profits, Alberta had the worst performance in the country, losing over 700 active businesses.

The largest increase was seen in Ontario, which has nearly 8,500 more active businesses than they did in September 2019.

On the plus side, Alberta wasn’t in last place for the percentage of active businesses lost: Newfoundland and Labrador took that honour. Alberta’s loss of 0.61% of its active businesses over the last 4 years, however, put it in foiurth to last place, on a percentage basis.

Finally, here’s how things looked compared to September 2018, the last September under the NDP.

	Sep 2018	Sep 2023	Change	% change
ON	344,309	357,550	13,241	3.85%
QC	191,263	199,270	8,007	4.19%
BC	147,111	153,930	6,819	4.64%
MB	27,658	28,450	792	2.86%
NS	19,966	20,543	577	2.89%
PEI	3,935	4,221	286	7.27%
NB	17,271	17,272	1	0.01%
SK	24,825	24,684	-141	-0.57%
AB	119,995	119,137	-858	-0.72%
NL	13,527	12,589	-938	-6.93%

Alberta improved slightly to the second worst performance of all the provinces in Canada, losing over 850 active businesses. Only 1 other province saw losses.

Here’s another look at the numbers over the last 5 years.

You can see the huge drop in active business in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another thing this chart clearly shows is that any growth in active businesses that has occurred during the UCP administration has been entirely recovery growth.

Plus, the number of active businesses was already declining for months before the pandemic-fuelled recession kicked in.

In fact, between September 2018 and February 2020, the last month before the government implemented public health protections, the province had already lost 1,642 active businesses.

As well, not only are we still nowhere close to where we were 5 years ago, but it seems as though what growth we were making has started to decline again, or at least stagnate.

We hit 119,638 active businesses this past February, which was the highest the number had been since December 2019. However, in the 5 months since then, it’s dropped by over 500 active businesses.

In other words, we may still be a long way off from even reaching the numbers seen prior to the summer of 2019.

All of the losses over the last 5 years were small businesses with fewer than 5 employees. There was a net loss of 1,098 active businesses with under 100 employees.

Employees	Sep 2018	Sep 2023	Change
1–4	80,202	77,097	-3,105
5–19	28,017	29,354	1,337
20–99	9,661	10,331	670
100–499	1,763	1,879	116
500+	351	353	2