Over 200,000 Businesses In Canada Are At Risk Of Closing Forever According To A New Report

"We are not headed in the right direction."
Contributor

Hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses are facing major hardships as well as the possibility of closing their doors for good due to COVID-19.

In fact, according to estimates by The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), the number stands at nearly 200,000.

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181,000 Small businesses thinking of closing in Canada

According to the report, around 181,000 small businesses in the country are seriously considering closing forever.

What's more, the CFIB found that 58,000 businesses "became inactive in 2020," meaning that over 200,000 enterprises may shutter before the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey by CFIB this summer found 158,000 small and medium-sized businesses were at risk of closing.

The organization says 2.4 million jobs are currently hanging in the balance.

Additionally, an estimate by the federation saw 158,000 companies at risk of totally tanking in business.

"We are not headed in the right direction and each week that passes without improvement on the business front pushes more owners to make that final decision," said Simon Gaudreault, CFIB's senior director of national research.

He explains that more businesses shutting down means Canadians can expect to lose jobs, making it even more difficult for the economy to recover.

  • Osobe Waberi was a Toronto-based Ethiopian-Somali Francophone writer at Narcity Canada. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a specialist degree in journalism and a news media diploma from Centennial College. Before Osobe’s gig as a national trending writer at Narcity, she worked at Toronto Star, The Canadian Press, VICE, and CBC.

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