AB lost over 600 active businesses since 2018

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 October 2023, so keep that in mind.

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

ON	358,585
QC	200,875
BC	154,529
AB	119,537
MB	28,606
SK	24,809
NS	20,630
NB	17,280
NL	12,606
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.

	Sep 2023	Oct 2023	Change	% change
MB	28,611	28,606	-5	-0.02%
PEI	4,230	4,209	-21	-0.50%
NL	12,657	12,606	-51	-0.40%
NS	20,683	20,630	-53	-0.26%
NB	17,340	17,280	-60	-0.35%
SK	24,874	24,809	-65	-0.26%
AB	119,817	119,537	-280	-0.23%
QC	201,250	200,875	-375	-0.19%
BC	155,046	154,529	-517	-0.33%
ON	359,902	358,585	-1,317	-0.37%

Between September and October 2023, every province saw a decrease in the number of active businesses.

The four largest provinces saw the fourth largest decreases, with Ontario being in last place (over 1,300 lost) and Alberta having the fourth largest loss (nearly 300).

Alberta had the third smallest percentage based decrease.

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

	Oct 2022	Oct 2023	Change	% change
AB	118,548	119,537	989	0.83%
ON	357,848	358,585	737	0.21%
MB	28,511	28,606	95	0.33%
NS	20,563	20,630	67	0.33%
PEI	4,167	4,209	42	1.01%
NB	17,282	17,280	-2	-0.01%
NL	12,625	12,606	-19	-0.15%
QC	200,913	200,875	-38	-0.02%
SK	25,010	24,809	-201	-0.80%
BC	155,260	154,529	-731	-0.47%

Alberta gained nearly 1,000 active businesses over this 12-month period, the largest increase the country. In fact, Alberta was one of only 5 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 700.

Since October 2022, the number of active businesses in Alberta increased by 0.83%, which drops the province slightly to the second largest increase among all provinces.

The story worsens slightly for Alberta when comparing 2 years.

	Oct 2021	Oct 2023	Change	% change
ON	347,577	358,585	11,008	3.17%
QC	197,040	200,875	3,835	1.95%
AB	117,013	119,537	2,524	2.16%
BC	152,921	154,529	1,608	1.05%
MB	28,157	28,606	449	1.59%
NS	20,212	20,630	418	2.07%
PEI	3,959	4,209	250	6.31%
NB	17,161	17,280	119	0.69%
SK	24,762	24,809	47	0.19%
NL	12,585	12,606	21	0.17%

Alberta’s increase of 2,524 active businesses over the last 2 years drops it to 3rd place; same with the percentage basis (2.16%).

Ontario had the largest increase of all the provinces, in terms of absolute numbers (over 11,000), while PEI saw the largest increase in percentage of new active businesses (6.31%).

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

	Oct 2020	Oct 2023	Change	% change
ON	326,455	358,585	32,130	9.84%
QC	188,510	200,875	12,365	6.56%
BC	143,365	154,529	11,164	7.79%
AB	112,961	119,537	6,576	5.82%
NS	19,381	20,630	1,249	6.44%
MB	27,409	28,606	1,197	4.37%
SK	23,763	24,809	1,046	4.40%
NB	16,705	17,280	575	3.44%
PEI	3,821	4,209	388	10.15%
NL	12,505	12,606	101	0.81%

Alberta saw a massive increase during that 3-year period, seeing over 6,500 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 32,000, a 9.84% increase, compared to Alberta’s 5.82%.

Speaking of percentage increases, Alberta’s was so low, that the province drops from 4th place to 6th place.

Let’s move on to October 2019.

	Oct 2019	Oct 2023	Change	% change
ON	349,027	358,585	9,558	2.74%
QC	193,385	200,875	7,490	3.87%
BC	149,253	154,529	5,276	3.53%
MB	27,867	28,606	739	2.65%
NS	20,188	20,630	442	2.19%
PEI	3,969	4,209	240	6.05%
NB	17,357	17,280	-77	-0.44%
SK	25,042	24,809	-233	-0.93%
AB	119,827	119,537	-290	-0.24%
NL	13,218	12,606	-612	-4.63%

Ouch.

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

The ironic thing is that October 2019 was the fourth 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 almost the worst performance in the country, losing nearly 300 active businesses. Only Newfoundland and Labrador did worse.

The largest increase was seen in Ontario, which has over 9,500 more active businesses than they did in October 2019.

On the plus side, Alberta wasn’t in second-to-last place for the percentage of active businesses lost. Alberta’s loss of 0.24% of its active businesses over the last 4 years put it in fourth-to-last place, on a percentage basis.

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

	Oct 2018	Oct 2023	Change	% change
ON	345,078	358,585	13,507	3.91%
QC	191,482	200,875	9,393	4.91%
BC	147,106	154,529	7,423	5.05%
MB	27,696	28,606	910	3.29%
NS	20,005	20,630	625	3.12%
PEI	3,912	4,209	297	7.59%
SK	24,801	24,809	8	0.03%
NB	17,320	17,280	-40	-0.23%
AB	120,156	119,537	-619	-0.52%
NL	13,482	12,606	-876	-6.50%

Alberta still had the second worst performance of all the provinces in Canada, losing over 600 active businesses. Only 2 other provinces 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 October 2018 and February 2020, the last month before the government implemented public health protections, the province had already lost 1,972 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 119,770 active businesses last January, which was the highest the number had been since October 2019. However, in the year since then, it’s dropped by 233 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. There was a net loss of 776 active businesses with under 100 employees.

	Oct 2018	Oct 2023	Change
1–4	79,289	77,321	-1,968
5–19	28,992	29,596	604
20–99	9,798	10,386	588
100–499	1,767	1,862	95
500+	353	352	-1