Small business confidence in BC took a nose dive in July as optimism fell 3.6 points.
“The sky is not falling just yet,” says Aaron Aerts, Canadian Federation of Independent Business economist. “We are at 65.9 which we think anything above 65 still means that entrepreneurs are overall optimistic. However, that decline also dropped BC’s position from first overall in the country to fifth.”
Aerts believes the newly-formed NDP government lead by Premier John Horgan may have something to do with the recent decline. “There could be some trepidations from some small business owners about what the new government might do in terms the minimum wage and things like that so there might be some owners who are taking a more cautious approach.”
Despite the drop, BC still maintains a sizeable lead over the national index which sits at 60.7.
PEI now has the optimistic small business owners in Canada with an index of 73.8.
Here are the top four provinces :
PEI (73.8)
Manitoba (68.9)
Quebec (68.9)
Nova Scotia (66.9)
Provinces like Newfoundland (51.8) and Saskatchewan (50.0) are at the bottom.
An index level between 65 and 75 means the economy is growing at its potential.
The July 2017 findings are based on 710 responses, collected from a sample of CFIB members.
The index rating is a calculation between the number of businesses wanting to expand or contract their business.
Fifty-two percent of small business owners in the province described the health of their business as good.