B.C. small businesses are continuing to face headwinds, even while conditions look like they are improving in the rest of the country.<\/p>\n
Xero, a global small business platform, released findings from its quarterly small business insights program today, based on sales data from 12,000 small businesses across the country.<\/p>\n
While sales picked up in the rest of the country, they actually fell for B.C.\u2019s small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish Columbia recorded the weakest result of any region tracked,\u201d wrote Xero in a press release.<\/p>\n
B.C.\u2019s small business sales fell 2.6 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, Alberta\u2019s sales grew by 5.9 per cent, and Ontario\u2019s by 2.2 per cent. Like B.C., the Maritime provinces saw small business sales fall by 1.4 per cent.<\/p>\n
Nationally, sales rose by two per cent.<\/p>\n
Xero said that the problem for B.C. owners is demand, rather than the cash flow squeeze seen in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cB.C. is the outlier again this quarter. It had the weakest sales of any region tracked, but its businesses get paid faster than anyone else\u2019s,\u201d wrote Xero.<\/p>\n
It added that the ongoing high prices at the gas pump are contributing to \u201cheadwinds\u201d for small businesses, as they \u201cfind themselves squeezed from both sides should high prices remain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, businesses across the country are struggling due to the effects of the U.S-Canada trade war.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wins from tariffs,\u201d said Louise Southall, an economist for Xero.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers on both sides of the border pay more for the same goods, and exporters find it harder to make a sale against products that don\u2019t carry the same tariff. The obvious response for Canadian exporters is to find new markets, but that takes time and isn\u2019t a costless exercise. And it\u2019s not just Canadians feeling it. U.S. businesses near the border are feeling the effects too.\u201d<\/p>\n