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Key Small Business Financing Statistics — December 2006

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 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Financing in Canada, 2003. Other products include profiles of specific types of business owners (e.g. women entrepreneurs, visible minorities, youth); research papers examining access to financing for particular groups of SMEs (e.g. gaps in access to financing for exporters, knowledge-based and innovative firms); and a myriad of data tables on debt, leasing and equity financing.

The SME FDI began following a recommendation in 1998 of the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector. Its overall objective is to collect data to build a better understanding of issues faced by SMEs in obtaining financing in Canada, thereby informing policy-making. The initiative gathers information from Statistics Canada surveys, as well as from research into niche areas of SME financing, particularly access to risk capital and attitudes and perceptions of financial institutions. Industry Canada is mandated to regularly report to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the state of SME financing in Canada.

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