Hard hats and hard times: Public construction impacts on small businesses

As Canada continues to invest in much-needed infrastructure improvements, local small businesses are too often left in the dust. Prolonged disruptions and persistent noise, clunky scaffolding, and debris severely impact businesses’ foot traffic, sales, and operations. Troublingly, there has been a notable increase in the number of businesses affected by these challenges over the past five years.

Though municipal and provincial construction plans are beyond small business owners’ control, they lead to uprooted plans, strained finances, and halted dreams. For entrepreneurs already navigating the precarious landscape of business ownership, these construction-related issues are not merely inconveniences, but substantial threats to their livelihoods and those of their employees.

This report quantifies and analyzes construction’s profound impacts on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), evaluates current government mitigation efforts, identifies critical gaps in support between provincial and municipal governments, and proposes a comprehensive construction mitigation plan for government consideration. Additionally, it serves as a benchmark for assessing government effectiveness in mitigating construction impacts and improving outcomes for small businesses.