AB lost over 1,600 active small businesses under the UCP

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 August 2023, so keep that in mind.

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

ON	359,536
QC	201,698
BC	154,980
AB	119,560
MB	28,535
SK	24,883
NS	20,620
NB	17,377
NL	12,575
PEI	4,209

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.

	Jul 2023	Aug 2023	Change	% change
AB	119,542	119,560	18	0.02%
NS	20,617	20,620	3	0.01%
NB	17,377	17,377	0	0.00%
PEI	4,212	4,209	-3	-0.07%
NL	12,592	12,575	-17	-0.14%
SK	24,926	24,883	-43	-0.17%
MB	28,600	28,535	-65	-0.23%
QC	201,796	201,698	-98	-0.05%
BC	155,309	154,980	-329	-0.21%
ON	360,118	359,536	-582	-0.16%

Between July and August 2023, only two provinces—Alberta and Nova Scotia—saw an increase in the number of active businesses. Alberta saw a rise of 18, while Nova Scotia saw only 3 new businesses. Ontario saw the largest decrease, losing almost 600 active businesses.

New Brunswick saw no change in numbers.

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

	Aug 2022	Aug 2023	Change	% change
ON	357,726	359,536	1,810	0.51%
QC	200,272	201,698	1,426	0.71%
AB	118,394	119,560	1,166	0.98%
PEI	4,118	4,209	91	2.21%
NS	20,530	20,620	90	0.44%
MB	28,482	28,535	53	0.19%
NB	17,335	17,377	42	0.24%
SK	24,982	24,883	-99	-0.40%
NL	12,677	12,575	-102	-0.80%
BC	155,465	154,980	-485	-0.31%

Alberta gained over 1,100 active businesses over this 12 month period, the third largest increase the country. Ontario topped the list, with over 1,800 more active businesses. Québec was in second place, with 1,426 more businesses.

British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan were the only provinces to see their number of active businesses drop over the last year.

Since August 2022, the number of active businesses in Alberta increased by 0.98%, which bumps the province up to the second largest increase among all provinces.

Prince Edward Island was the only province to see an increase of more than 1% in their active businesses over the last year, and their growth past the 2% mark.

The story worsens slightly for Alberta when comparing 2 years.

	Aug 2021	Aug 2023	Change	% change
ON	344,266	359,536	15,270	4.44%
QC	195,563	201,698	6,135	3.14%
BC	151,708	154,980	3,272	2.16%
AB	117,460	119,560	2,100	1.79%
NS	20,012	20,620	608	3.04%
MB	28,087	28,535	448	1.60%
NB	16,984	17,377	393	2.31%
PEI	3,943	4,209	266	6.75%
SK	24,732	24,883	151	0.61%
NL	12,467	12,575	108	0.87%

Alberta’s increase of 2,100 active businesses over the last 2 years drops it to 4th place; however, they drop to 7th place on a percentage basis (1.79%).

Ontario had the largest increase of all the provinces, in terms of absolute numbers (over 15,000), while PEI saw the largest increase in percentage of new active businesses (6.75%).

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

	Aug 2020	Aug 2023	Change	% change
ON	315,919	359,536	43,617	13.81%
QC	181,649	201,698	20,049	11.04%
BC	139,393	154,980	15,587	11.18%
AB	110,173	119,560	9,387	8.52%
MB	26,789	28,535	1,746	6.52%
NS	18,908	20,620	1,712	9.05%
SK	23,270	24,883	1,613	6.93%
NB	16,292	17,377	1,085	6.66%
PEI	3,713	4,209	496	13.36%
NL	12,119	12,575	456	3.76%

Alberta saw a massive increase during that 3-year period, seeing over 9,000 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 43,000, a 13.81% increase, compared to Alberta’s 8.52%.

Spoeaking of percentage increases, Alberta’s was so low, that the province drops from 4th place to 6th place; although that’s higher than the 7th place they were in at the two-year mark.

Let’s move on to August 2019.

	Aug 2019	Aug 2023	Change	% change
ON	349,471	359,536	10,065	2.88%
QC	193,383	201,698	8,315	4.30%
BC	149,322	154,980	5,658	3.79%
MB	27,910	28,535	625	2.24%
NS	20,202	20,620	418	2.07%
PEI	4,006	4,209	203	5.07%
NB	17,450	17,377	-73	-0.42%
SK	25,121	24,883	-238	-0.95%
AB	120,088	119,560	-528	-0.44%
NL	13,405	12,575	-830	-6.19%

Ouch.

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

The ironic thing is that July 2019 was the second 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 second worst performance in the country, losing over 500 active businesses.

Only 1 other province—Newfoundland and Labrador—saw a loss in total active businesses between August 2019 and August 2023.

The largest increase was seen in Ontario, which has over 10,000 more active businesses than they did in August 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 0.44% of its active businesses over the last 4 years, however, put it in second to last place, on a percentage basis.

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

	Aug 2018	Aug 2023	Change	% change
ON	343,769	359,536	15,767	4.59%
QC	190,587	201,698	11,111	5.83%
BC	146,866	154,980	8,114	5.52%
MB	27,598	28,535	937	3.40%
NS	19,945	20,620	675	3.38%
PEI	3,911	4,209	298	7.62%
SK	24,708	24,883	175	0.71%
NB	17,300	17,377	77	0.45%
AB	120,116	119,560	-556	-0.46%
NL	13,514	12,575	-939	-6.95%

Alberta, once again, has had the second worst performance of all the provinces in Canada, losing over 550 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 August 2018 and February 2020, the last month before the government implemented public health protections, the province lost 1,973 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 119,980 active businesses this past January, which was the highest the number had been since December 2019. However, in the 5 months since then, it’s dropped by over 400 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.

Nearly all of the losses over the last 5 years were small businesses with fewer than 5 employees

Employees	Aug 2018	Aug 2023	Change
1–4	79,436	77,819	-1,617
5–19	28,776	29,246	470
20–99	9,772	10,268	496
100–499	1,758	1,876	118
500+	356	350	-6