Consumer and business insolvancies up in 2024

Donoreo

It was not a good year.

"consumer insolvencies rose by 11.4% in 2024 compared to the previous year. This sharp increase amounts to 137,295 filings—over 14,000 more than in 2023—averaging about 375 insolvencies per day."

"business insolvencies jumped significantly in 2024, with a total of 6,188 filings, up 28.6% from 2023. "

https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/02/consumer-and-business-insolvencies-reached-15-year-high-in-2024/

urbanriot

Donoreo A lot of bad things happened in the past few years to exacerbate insolvencies:

post-covid led to decreased clientele in almost all sectors (many businesses still haven't fully recovered)
carbon tax increases
wage increases
CRA is coming down hard on companies
Canadian payroll taxes increased
Canadian corporate taxes increased
Canadian vacation agreements have become better for employees, worse for employers
rent has increased
property taxes have increased
etc., etc..

The overhead for running a business in Canada is insane right now.

I wrote this in the other thread, Canada is a treacherous place to do business as the costs are rising. It's no longer a matter of whether or not you can run a business, it's whether you can afford to run a business in Canada.

Thane_Bitter

2025 isn't going to be any better and more likely worse.

Back in peak house prices times a number of condo attached row houses had been completed nearby, right now there is a party of "sale" and "rent" signs out front because some owners are buckling under higher interest payments, or their dream of being an AirBnb host has deflated thanks to local bylaws (in this city you must live in the same home as the short term rental space you wish to rent out - suffice to say this rule has freed up some housing, and with the weekend party rental set gone actually improved some areas).

Dks01

urbanriot The usual anti-tax, anti-worker whine of the capitalist. Small business that meets a real need and treats workers well will do just fine. Whiners... well, that's tough.

px_eliezer_

Dks01
The usual anti-tax, anti-worker whine of the capitalist. Small business that meets a real need and treats workers well will do just fine. Whiners... well, that's tough.

I cannot agree with that as a generalization.

As well, "capitalist" should not be considered a bad word, at least in the case of a small business.

In 2024, the average (Canadian) small business owner lost the equivalent of 32 business days wrapped up in red tape.

The combined cost of regulation to businesses from all three levels of government in Canada reached $51.5 billion. Approximately 35% of that – just under $18 billion was spent on red tape. Businesses of all sizes spent 768 million hours on regulatory compliance2 - the equivalent of nearly 394,000 full-time3 jobs.

The smallest businesses bear a disproportionately high burden of the cost, paying up to five times more per-employee than larger businesses (see Figure 1).

https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/research-economic-analysis/canadas-red-tape-report

Dks01

urbanriot No, you just trotted out the usual arguments that are mostly nonsense. If you think Canada is a poor place to do business, find something else to do or do business elsewhere. Don’t whine about how tough it is. And don’t move the goalposts.

urbanriot

Dks01

No, you just trotted out the usual arguments that are mostly nonsense. If you think Canada is a poor place to do business, find something else to do or do business elsewhere. Don’t whine about how tough it is. And don’t move the goalposts.

(edited)

Piles and piles of manufacturing, packing, canning, production jobs have picked up and moved facilities to the United States because it's cheaper to ship to Canada than manufacture, pack, can, and produce in Canada. This is a fact. I can list you a pile of companies that have done this and cited high cost of labour in Canada.

Dks01

px_eliezer_ The CFIB is a small business lobbyist. Their position is not exactly neutral.

Dks01

urbanriot Ah. Weak arguments resort to ad homineims. Always. As I said, if you want to business in the US, be my guest. Just stop moving the goalposts.

urbanriot

Dks01

Ah. Weak arguments resort to ad homineims. Always. As I said, if you want to business in the US, be my guest. Just stop moving the goalposts.

Speaking of weak arguments, straw men, and ad homineims [sic], I never said I wanted to do business in any country, I simply pointed out why there are so many insolvencies in Canada... you know, the topic?

px_eliezer_

Dks01
The CFIB is a small business lobbyist. Their position is not exactly neutral.

Of course not.

Every group has an advocacy organization.

"The Canadian Honey Council (CHC) is the national organization of the beekeeping industry. It is a not for profit organization, established in 1940 and incorporated in 1950."

"The Northern School of Esoteric Wisdom---In one sense we are Theosophists, in another sense, we practise both Vajarayana Buddhism along with the self-observation techniques of the Gurdjieff/Ouspensky Work ideas..."

"Hamster Enthusiasts Canada"

So why shouldn't small business have an advocacy group?