Paul Martin Commentary
If nothing else, Saskatchewan’s business community is among the most stable in the nation.
One measure for tracking stability is to examine the number of businesses that open and close. It turns out the number of businesses operating in the province for the last half of 2025 was almost unchanged.
StatsCan tracking of these data show that on a monthly basis the number of business operating province-wide as well as in the two major cities hovered in a very narrow band. Saskatchewan had roughly 25,000 operating businesses each month. Regina’s business population was about 6,200 and Saskatoon’s was significantly higher at 8,200.
The remarkable thing about these data is that they were virtually unchanged on a month-to-month basis. By comparison, at the national level there was considerably more volatility. In November, for example, almost five-percent of business across the country closed their doors as business insolvencies went up by nearly 18-percent.
