It’s difficult to quantify the effects of 2020’s optimism deficit on business bottom lines. But, as the pandemic spring, summer and fall have illustrated, it is significant.
That’s why any light at the end of the tunnel indicating some relief in that deficit is similarly significant. Recent contributors to that relief package include the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, delayed or not in B.C. and the rest of Canada, and a potential plea bargain in the Meng Wanzhou extradition soap opera. But closer to the factory floor in the world of private-sector business survival are issues such as market prospects, future sales and trade. Light at the end of those tunnels is reason for basic business optimism. So the results of a newly released HSBC Navigator report provide some measure of where that factory floor optimism reading is today in Canada. And it is heartening at the tail-end of this annus horribilis. The report finds 67% of the companies surveyed in 39 Canadian markets are optimistic about international trade opportunities over the next one to two years. More than one-third of businesses in British Columbia list Europe in their top three markets for expansion. Canadian companies are also looking to Latin America and Asia for expansion opportunities. And 60% of Canadian companies responding to the survey say they intend to increase investment in their businesses. You need bottom-line optimism to back that wager. However, in a land that continues to be hobbled by domestic trade roadblocks and red tape, it’s not surprising to find survey respondents anticipating a drop in inter-regional trade. That is an area that needs far more than optimism to counter blinkered thinking and parochial protectionism. But, overall, the HSBC report finds Canadian companies looking abroad for growth opportunities. That speaks to confidence in Canada’s ability to compete globally. And that is cause for optimism in more than this country’s business sector.
