BC

Monthly Filings

A five-year chart of BC-wide consumer insolvency filings.


Consumer Proposals

BC consumer proposals as a percentage of new filings reached an all time high of 85.7% in April 2023.


Annual File Growth

To measure growth we compare total filings in the 12 months ended April 2023 to those in the 12 months ended April 2022.


Regions / Municipal Areas

Mean and Current Monthly Filings

We consider census metropolitan areas and regions and compare current volumes with the 10-year historical mean. Showing the current month as a percentage of the mean reveals the degree to which current filings exceed the mean.


Cities

Most Active This Month

We rank cities by the number of consumer insolvencies filed in the most recent month.


Highest Annual Growth Rates

We filter out cities having less than 120 filings per year and report the 15 having the highest annual growth.

City 12.mos.to.Apr2023 12.mos.to.Apr2022 Change Percent Change
Esquimalt 174 94 80 85.1%
Penticton 135 83 52 62.7%
Abbotsford 423 280 143 51.1%
Highlands 184 124 60 48.4%
New Westminster 225 155 70 45.2%
Port Coquitlam 246 178 68 38.2%
Maple Ridge 226 165 61 37.0%
Surrey 1306 959 347 36.2%
Coquitlam 155 114 41 36.0%
Delta 203 155 48 31.0%
Chilliwack 290 224 66 29.5%
Richmond 330 255 75 29.4%
Vancouver 1243 971 272 28.0%
Kelowna 396 313 83 26.5%
Vernon 208 169 39 23.1%


Lowest Annual Growth Rates

We report the 10 cities with the lowest annual growth rates.

City 12.mos.to.Apr2023 12.mos.to.Apr2022 Change Percent Change
Kamloops 280 260 20 7.7%
Prince George 245 223 22 9.9%
Saanich 216 193 23 11.9%
Nanaimo 298 262 36 13.7%
North Vancouver 238 209 29 13.9%
Burnaby 415 352 63 17.9%
Victoria 149 126 23 18.3%
Langley 350 288 62 21.5%
Vernon 208 169 39 23.1%
Kelowna 396 313 83 26.5%


10-Year Monthly Highs and Lows

We determined the maximum and minimum monthly filings since 2013 and compared these to the current monthly filings to determine whether the city was experiencing an historic high or low number of filings.

Highs


Lows - none


Forward Sortation Areas

Most Active This Month

The 20 most active FSAs in the current month and their monthly mean since 2013.

FSA FSA.Place.Name City April2023 Mean April2023.over.Mean
V2S Abbotsford Southeast Abbotsford 22 12.2 179.9%
V9B Highlands Highlands 21 16.3 129.2%
V2A Penticton Penticton 20 10.5 190.0%
V3S Surrey East Surrey 19 18.1 104.7%
V0R Central Island (Chemainus) Rural Area 16 14.2 112.8%
V9A Esquimalt Esquimalt 15 12.6 118.7%
V3J Coquitlam North Coquitlam 14 6.8 206.2%
V3V Surrey Outer Northwest Surrey 14 10.5 133.7%
V1X Kelowna East Central Kelowna 13 9.5 136.6%
V2C Kamloops Central and Southeast Kamloops 13 4.7 275.1%
V2M Prince George West Central Prince George 13 7.0 184.4%
V3A Langley City Langley 13 10.7 121.3%
V4C Delta Northeast Delta 13 7.6 171.3%
V5N Vancouver (South Grandview-Woodlands / NE Kensington) Vancouver 13 6.0 214.9%
V5R Vancouver (South Renfrew-Collingwood) Vancouver 13 8.6 150.7%
V1J Fort St. John Fort St. John 12 6.2 192.2%
V2P Chilliwack Central Chilliwack 12 10.5 114.3%
V3B Port Coquitlam Central Port Coquitlam 12 9.9 120.9%
V3R Surrey North Surrey 12 15.4 77.8%
V3T Surrey Inner Northwest Surrey 12 11.6 103.0%


Highest Annual Growth Rates

We average over 10 years the monthly consumer insolvencies in FSAs and we filter out those having less than 72 files annually. We compare the number of files in the 12-month period ended April 2023 to those in the 12-month period ended April 2022 to calculate growth. We show the top 20.

FSA FSA_Place_Name City 12.mos.to.Apr2023 12.mos.to.Apr2022 Change Percent Change
V9A Esquimalt Esquimalt 174 94 80 85.1%
V2A Penticton Penticton 135 83 52 62.7%
V1C Cranbrook Cranbrook 86 53 33 62.3%
V5X Vancouver (SE Oakridge / East Marpole / South Sunset) Vancouver 80 50 30 60.0%
V2S Abbotsford Southeast Abbotsford 181 115 66 57.4%
V3V Surrey Outer Northwest Surrey 144 95 49 51.6%
V2V Mission East Mission 117 78 39 50.0%
V9B Highlands Highlands 184 124 60 48.4%
V4N Surrey Northeast Surrey 171 116 55 47.4%
V3B Port Coquitlam Central Port Coquitlam 125 86 39 45.3%
V8Z Saanich Central Saanich 62 43 19 44.2%
V2X Maple Ridge West Maple Ridge 156 111 45 40.5%
V3M New Westminster Southwest (Includes Annacis Island) New Westminster 138 99 39 39.4%
V3T Surrey Inner Northwest Surrey 171 125 46 36.8%
V9R Nanaimo South Nanaimo 136 100 36 36.0%
V3R Surrey North Surrey 184 136 48 35.3%
V2R Chilliwack West Chilliwack 136 101 35 34.7%
V1Y Kelowna Central Kelowna 132 99 33 33.3%
V9W Campbell River Central Campbell River 120 91 29 31.9%
V3S Surrey East Surrey 241 183 58 31.7%


Lowest Annual Growth Rates

And we show the bottom 15.

FSA FSA_Place_Name City 12.mos.to.Apr2023 12.mos.to.Apr2022 Change Percent Change
V0H South Okanagan (Summerland) Rural Area 93 112 -19 -17.0%
V3N Burnaby (East Big Bend / Stride Avenue / Edmonds / Cariboo-Armstrong) Burnaby 87 89 -2 -2.2%
V3A Langley City Langley 132 131 1 0.8%
V3C Port Coquitlam South Port Coquitlam 73 69 4 5.8%
V9N Courtenay Central Courtenay 102 96 6 6.2%
V4T Westbank Westbank 90 82 8 9.8%
V0E Central Okanagan and High Country (Revelstoke) Rural Area 154 138 16 11.6%
V1X Kelowna East Central Kelowna 101 89 12 13.5%
V0R Central Island (Chemainus) Rural Area 148 130 18 13.8%
V9T Nanaimo North Nanaimo 90 79 11 13.9%
V2B Kamloops Northwest Kamloops 157 136 21 15.4%
V6G Vancouver (North West End / Stanley Park) Vancouver 79 68 11 16.2%
V9L Duncan Duncan 118 100 18 18.0%
V3W Surrey Upper West Surrey 183 154 29 18.8%
V9C Metchosin Metchosin 61 51 10 19.6%


Notes

  • FSA and Forward Sortation Area are protected terms for the benefit of Canada Post Corporation.

  • Data source: The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (“OSB”), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, data sets 2013 to April 2023, https://open.canada.ca/

  • We report on only consumer bankruptcies and consumer proposals as defined by the OSB. For definitions, see https://open.canada.ca/

  • Ken Rowan is a retired Licensed Insolvency Trustee and a retired CA, CPA.

Questions or Comments? Email debtsgo.ca