More Canadian business owners plan to grow, despite US tariffs

Business owners who want to grow

78 %

In a Business Development Bank of Canada survey of 2,500 small and medium-sized business owners, 78 per cent said they want to grow, up from 67 per cent last year. Expansion overtook profitability as their top priority.

What tariff-hit businesses did

• 47% gained customers in new Canadian markets
• 26% found customers outside the US
• 72% worked with new suppliers

Among businesses hit by tariffs, 47 per cent gained customers in new Canadian markets and 26 per cent found customers outside the US. Of those firms, 72 per cent started working with new suppliers.

Cedar-Built Greenhouses, which sells greenhouse kits from Abbotsford, British Columbia, told the bank its US sales fell 30 per cent even though its products were not subject to tariffs.

The pressure is rising too: 29 per cent named US tariffs as a major challenge, up from 19 per cent in 2025, and 31 per cent named competition, up from 24 per cent.