After dipping in March, small business confidence in Alberta edged up in April.

According to the latest Business Barometer® report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), the long-term optimism index for Alberta increased 0.8 percentage points to 51.2 in April.*

It wasn’t a big improvement and the reading was lower than a year ago, but at least it moved up rather than down, which is what happened nationally.

The long-term outlook for Canada as a whole pulled back sharply, going from 52.9 in March to 47.5 in April.

Relatively strong economic growth in Alberta may explain the different trajectories.

The CFIB notes that historically low levels of confidence in the two largest provinces (Ontario and Quebec) is “casting a gloomy light on the Canadian economy overall.”

It was the same story for the short-term index, with the 3-month outlook edging up in Alberta, but deteriorating nationally.

Insufficient demand (mentioned by 47% of respondents) vied with a shortage of skilled labour (cited by 46% of respondents) as the top limitation on sales/production growth cited by Alberta small business owners in April.

*The data reflect responses received from April 2 to 17. The long-term optimism index is based on how businesses expect to be performing in 12 months while the short-term optimism index is based on how businesses expect to be performing in 3 months.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The population of Mexico is over three times that of Canada.

Today’s trivia question: In what year was the CFIB founded?