Canada
As pandemic bills come due, are Canada’s small businesses in danger?
In today’s Big Story Podcast, we hear it again and again: small business is the backbone of our economy. To take that metaphor a little further, if that’s the case, then our economy is starting to slouch in a big way. Last year, small business insolvencies hit a level not seen in more than a decade. And many more business owners simply closed up, walked away and left an empty storefront behind them.
Ryan Mallough of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, paints a pretty bleak future for small business in Canada. “It would have been tough coming off of the pandemic anyway”, says Mallough, “but the reality that we have now, the global pressures that we’re seeing — just not a lot of optimism heading into 2024.”
How many mom-and-pop shops on our main streets are destined to disappear in the coming year? Should governments be doing more to keep them afloat? What’s the long-term impact on our economy?
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