The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says British Columbia small businesses aren’t feeling very confident these days.
The province dropped in the provincial rankings from third to seventh after losing 1.5 points in February; this is the second-straight month BC has done so.
All things considered, Regional Vice-President Richard Truscott says entrepreneurs should not be entirely concerned.
“We’re still doing better than the national level, but some other provinces have taken the place of BC near the top, so there’s some concern. The picture, although a little pessimistic, is not bad by any means and it’s still at a good level.”
Now just under a single point ahead of the next province on the national index, Truscott believes this is a reflection of other areas gaining in confidence rather than BC showing weakness.
He also says the data doesn’t fully take into account the recently delivered balanced budget.
“I’m expecting we’ll actually see a rebound in March, that is because obviously there is considerable small business-friendly tax measures. So this might just be a ‘blip’ that we might see go up next month, but you can never predict exactly what small businesses are feeling.”
#Smallbiz welcomes tax relief in today’s BC budget https://t.co/oZ8CBHkOkF #CFIB #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/2gsFbjEnuV
— Richard Truscott (@cfibBC) February 22, 2017
Truscott adds the overall attitude of small business owners, when surveyed, isn’t true to the CFIB’s release.
“When you look at how they feel about the general state of health of their business, almost 50% say that they feel confident they’re in a good state of health compared to just 8% that describe their health as poor. So the current ranking of their business health is actually quite strong.”
On the upside, BC businesses looking to hire full-time staff members this month improved significantly by 18%.