As the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s flagship report, the OER provides key insights into the province’s diverse business community with the goal of informing future public policy to create a more competitive and prosperous Ontario. This year, we’re introducing the inaugural Small Business Friendliness Indicator (SBFI) which will benchmark how friendly the Ontario business environment is and where action can be taken to make improvements. The SBFI joins the Business Confidence Survey and the regional Economic Outlook within the data-driven OER.
- The fourth annual Ontario Economic Report (OER) reveals opportunities where both business and government can focus to create an environment more conducive to small business success.
- The inaugural Small Business Friendliness Indicator (SBFI) measures Ontario’s competitiveness from the perspective of small businesses.
- For 2020, the SBFI score is -9, (on a scale of 100 to -100) indicating that the business environment poses some challenges for firms with fewer than 99 employees.
- However, through measures such as investment in online services and support for regulatory compliance, industry and government could improve that score.
- The SBFI is intended to provide an assessment of the ease of business in Ontario across seven different metrics; this year the scores for three metrics were positive: the helpfulness of the Province in starting a business, the ease of licensing, and the delivery of useful training and networking programs from a variety of sources. o The SBFI also revealed that small business owners are eager to embrace more online services from government, especially with respect to regulatory compliance.
- The Ontario Economic Report, including the Small Business Friendliness Indicator, is a useful tool to inform government on where to reduce barriers and increase investment to support business competitiveness across the province.
Other highlights from the Ontario Economic Report include:
- The confidence gap, which measures the difference between business’ confidence in themselves and in Ontario’s economic outlook, widened in 2020 to near historical levels. o Although organizational confidence remains high, business confidence in the broader economy dropped seven percentage points in 2020, explained in part by lowered growth expectations nationally and globally. Beyond this, challenges related to the costs of doing business, the high cost of living, and the province’s debt continue to be top of mind for OCC members
- Infrastructure investment, such as transportation and broadband internet, topped the list of business priorities for government, followed by reducing regulatory burdens, lowering the cost of living, and reforming business taxes.
- Challenges related to accessing financial capital, attracting and retaining talent and burdensome regulations continue to compromise the ability of many of Ontario’s community to compete effectively with other jurisdictions.
- Despite these challenges, Ontario’s principal economic indicators remain sound, albeit subdued, heading into 2020, but economic growth is expected to vary greatly across the province. o The forecasts show employment and population growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Ottawa surpassing other parts of Ontario, reinforcing a decade-long trend of imbalanced economic growth across the province.
