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Key Small Business Financing Statistics - August 2005

Preface

Key Small Business Financing Statistics is a reference document on the state of financing for Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is part of a series of research products prepared through the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Financing Data Initiative (SME FDI) — a partnership between Industry Canada, Statistics Canada and the Department of Finance.

More details and a more comprehensive review of SME financing in Canada are available in SME Financing in Canada, 2003. Other products include profiles of specific business owners (e.g. women entrepreneurs, visible minorities, youth, etc.); research papers examining access to financing for particular groups of SMEs (e.g. gaps in debt financing for innovative firms); and a myriad of data tables on debt, leasing and equity financing.

The SME FDI began following a recommendation of the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector in 1999. Its overall objective is to collect data to build a better understanding of issues SMEs face in obtaining financing in Canada, thereby informing policy making. The initiative gathers information from Statistics Canada surveys, as well as from additional research into niche areas of SME financing, particularly in the areas of access to risk capital and SMEs' attitudes toward and perceptions of financial institutions. Industry Canada is mandated to report on the state of SME financing in Canada to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology on a regular basis.

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