The contracts and sales that Canadian SMEs had to postpone or even reject due to staff shortages represented a shortfall of more than $38 billion last year.
This is according to a report published on Wednesday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The labor shortage has therefore been costly for the owners of these small and medium-sized businesses, as they have been forced to reduce their opening hours or even work more hours to stay on track.
“This does not necessarily represent such a large net loss to the Canadian economy, but these funds could have allowed owners to invest in automation or expand their business,” explained Laure-Anna Bomal, an economist at CFIB and author of the report .
SMEs in the construction sector in particular have suffered from the situation, recording a loss of more than $9.6 billion last year.
In Quebec, these companies lost almost $11 billion in 2021 and almost $8 billion in 2022 for the same reason.
“In the long term, labor shortages and the resulting losses will only increase unless we change our approach to the labor market,” said Christina Santini, director of national affairs at CFIB.
To counteract this, the CFIB calls in particular for a reduction in taxes for small businesses, support for SMEs in the transition to automation, but also a reduction in administrative burdens and barriers to employment.