REGINA -- Operators of small independent businesses in Saskatchewan were in a fairly optimistic mood in the first quarter of 2009 — especially in comparison to their depressed country cousins in Alberta.
Survey results released Wednesday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business showed that business operators in Saskatchewan were the third most optimistic in Canada while those in Alberta were the least optimistic.
The optimism rating of 79.8 in Alberta, based on a scoring system devised by the CFIB based on answers provided to business operators to a series of questions, was the lowest recorded in any province at any time since the CFIB began conducting the survey almost 10 years ago.
Marilyn Braun-Pollon, the vice-president Saskatchewan and Agri-business with the CFIB, said the Alberta-Saskatchewan comparison is interesting because surveys taken about three years ago indicated Alberta business operators were the most optimistic in Canada while those in Saskatchewan were the least optimistic.
“Who would have thought?,’’ Braun-Pollon asked Wednesday, adding that few people would have guessed three years ago that there would have been such a change in the fortunes and in the economic climates of the two neighbouring Western provinces.
“The Alberta advantage is fading away,’’ Braun-Pollon commented, in a telephone interview.
“The bloom is off the boom,’’ she added.
The increased diversity of Saskatchewan’s economy has helped the province weather the national and economic turmoil of recent months better than Alberta and most parts of Canada, Braun-Pollon said.
The news for Saskatchewan was not all positive in the latest survey to the extent that the province was leading the country in business optimism in the final three months of 2008 but fell behind Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick in the first quarter of 2009.
And the confidence score in Saskatchewan declined to 97.3 in the first quarter of 2009 from 100.6 in the last three months of 2008.
Across Canada, the confidence level for business operators increased slightly in the first quarter to 87.3 from 86.1 in the final quarter of last year.
But Braun-Pollon said it is significant that the confidence levels in Saskatchewan remain well above the national average.
Major investments in infrastructure and the planned reductions in education property taxes announced in last week’s provincial budget should fuel increased optimism in the province during the upcoming second quarter of the year, Braun-Pollon said.
Twenty-five per cent of the business operators surveyed in Saskatchewan said they expected to increase full-time employment while nine per cent said they planned to decrease the number of full-time employees.
Sixty three per cent of those surveyed in Saskatchewan said product input costs were getting worse and 38 per cent said wage costs were going up.
The survey was conducted on a web site and by fax between March 1 and March 13, with 1,741 business responding. The national results are considered to be accurate within a 2.3 per cent margin of error 19 times out of 20. But the margin of error would be greater for individual provinces.