A total of 120,344 Canadian small businesses “disappeared” over the course of the COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by the Trudeau Liberals.Researchers counted 1,216,550 small business operations nationwide in 2023 compared to 1,226,454 in 2020, a federal report obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter reveals.According to the Department of Industry, there are now fewer small businesses in Canada than there were prior to the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. They noted permanent business closures were offset in part by new start-ups, but between the three-year period the department clocked a net loss of 10,100 retailers, 2,700 restaurateurs and hotelkeepers and 3,800 wholesalers.The report, from Key Small Business Statistics, states, “the rate of business creation sharply declined during the COVID-19 pandemic reaching a record low of 3.8% in 2020,” it said. “This is a decrease of two percentage points compared with the year 2019.”“An increase or decrease in the number of businesses is the net result of the appearance or disappearance of businesses over a given period,” wrote researchers. “This is often referred to as ‘creative destruction.’”“Between 2001 and 2020 the number of small businesses increased every year except for three: in 2013, 2016 and 2020 when more businesses disappeared than were created,” the report states. Private sector employment fell in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, between 2020 and 2023, while private sector payrolls nationwide declined from 12,303,500 workers to 12,214,400, a loss of 89,100 jobs.“The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to the Canadian economy,” said Business Statistics. “The resulting economic contraction significantly impacted employment.”Superintendent of Bankruptcy Elisabeth Lang reported a total of 128,043 bankruptcies filed in 2023, narrowly missing the 158,000 record set during the 2008 economic collapse. “Insolvency is a lagging indicator,” Lang testified at 2020 hearings of the Commons finance committee. “Our historical data shows there will be an increase but I don’t think it will be sudden.”Yet, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business CEO Dan Kelly cautioned, also in 2020, insolvency figures did not capture the full extent of damage caused through the pandemic. “In my view there are hundreds of thousands of zombie businesses, businesses that are essentially dead but haven’t finalized the closure process altogether,” Kelly testified at the Senate national finance committee. “They have a paper sign saying, ‘Temporarily Closed.’”“We are going to see those businesses now formally fail, more boarded-up signs,” said Kelly. “Our research shows one in seven businesses will fail.”
