Confidence is waning among Canadian small businesses, and nowhere in the country has it wavered as much as in British Columbia, according to a new survey.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says its February Business Barometer recorded long-term small business confidence falling nationally for the third consecutive month.
The survey found the biggest dip in B.C., with long-term confidence falling 3.7 points. B.C. was followed by Alberta (3.6 points), Manitoba (3.4 points) and Ontario (3.2 points).
“Canada got another tariff reprieve until early April, but the looming threat remains a constant concern for many small business owners, making it difficult to plan for the future,” CFIB senior policy analyst Emily Boston said.
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“Small firms operate on tight margins, and results from our special survey on the impact of U.S.-Canada tariffs released earlier this month show that a majority are not prepared for the impact should the tariffs hit.”
The CFIB survey found that short-term confidence among B.C. small businesses was also the lowest in Canada, at 41.8 index points, more than a dozen points below its historical average.
The CFIB said the top concerns reported to be plaguing B.C. small businesses were taxes and regulations (77 per cent), insurance costs (70 per cent), wage costs (65 per cent) and low demand (59 per cent).
Boston said more than half of B.C. exporters believe it will take them more than half a year to adapt to new markets and stabilize operations amid U.S. tariff threats.
“The uncertainty, coupled with ongoing inflationary pressures, is weighing down on small businesses, dampening their long-term outlook,” she said.
As of Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ever-fluctuating threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods and 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy appeared to be on track to come into force on March 4.
In his latest post to social media, Trump returned to his complaint that the tariffs were linked to the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the U.S. Trump has provided no evidence to support the claims, and data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Canadian government show that less than one per cent of fentanyl seized entering the U.S. came from the northern border.
Trump has previously provided a litany of reasons for the tariffs, ranging from a trade deficit with Canada to a desire to generate non-tax revenue to an interest in using “economic force” to annex Canada.
