120,000 Small Businesses ‘Disappeared’ Due to Pandemic Lockdowns: Federal Data

A sign on a shop window indicates the store is closed in Ottawa, on March 23, 2020. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The permanent closing of more than 120,000 small and medium-sized businesses can be directly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020, according to a newly released government report.

A Department of Industry report revealed that 120,344 businesses “disappeared” during that time and the overall “rate of business creation sharply declined… to reach a record low of 3.8 percent in 2020.”