By rdnewsNOW staff

Business barometer

Alberta small business confidence falls to all-time-low amid COVID-19 pandemic: CFIB

Mar 25, 2020 | 1:00 PM

Confidence among small businesses in Alberta has reached an all-time low, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

The organization released its March Business Barometer on Wednesday revealing Alberta’s small business confidence fell to a record low index of 26.2 points in March, down 13.4 points from February.

CFIB says Alberta’s index is the second lowest in the country and is only slightly behind the national index of 30.8 points.

An index level closer to 65 indicates that the economy is growing at its potential, the organization says.

“These numbers clearly indicate small business owners are feeling the impacts COVID-19 is having on the economy,” said Annie Dormuth, CFIB’s Alberta Director of Provincial Affairs. “We continue to take hundreds of calls from small business owners who are facing temporary layoff and business closure decisions, seeing low revenues and have serious concerns about paying their rent or lease on April 1.”

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Only five per cent of responding business owners say their business is in a good state, compared to 60 per cent who say their business is doing poorly.

Hiring plans have ground to a halt in Alberta with only 3% of business owners planning to hire full-time staff in the next three months, while 66% are planning layoffs – the highest in Canada.

“The Alberta government’s decision to defer WCB premiums until 2021 and cancel the planned 3.4% increase in education property taxes provides some much-needed relief to small businesses impacted by COVID-19,” added Dormuth. “However, the Alberta government can take further action by introducing an Emergency Relief Provision in the Alberta Employment Standards Code and introduce measures to defer rent and lease payments for small businesses.”

CFIB says it continues its call for a COVID-19 Job Retention Program that would subsidize wages of Canadian employers able to retain their staff. This would cover at least 75% of wages for all employers, up to a cap of $5,000 per worker per month. CFIB proposes the program include the self-employed and small business owners.

“We also need the federal government to put on hold the carbon tax and CPP hikes,” Dormuth added.

Nationally, CFIB says small business confidence fell to a new historic low with a significant decline (down 20 points) to 30.8 points in March.

CFIB says its mid-March 2020 findings are based on 1,378 responses, collected from a stratified random sample of CFIB members, to a controlled-access web survey. Data reflects responses received on March 17 and 18. Findings are statistically accurate to +/- 2.6 per cent 19 times in 20.