Credit Conditions Survey

TITLE

Credit Conditions Survey

PURPOSE

Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada requires services of a contractor to conduct a survey on small business financing. Small businesses are defined as businesses having between 1 and 99 employees. The services will be required for a period commencing from contract award to March 24, 2019, plus one (1) option year to be exercised at Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada’s discretion ending March 31, 2020.

BACKGROUND

In 2014 and 2015, a 23-question survey^[1] completed by more than 2,100 small businesses was conducted to assess access to financing for small businesses. The results of the 2015 survey showed that credit conditions for small businesses remained stable in 2016. Start-ups and smaller businesses continue to face relatively greater difficulties accessing financing and access to financing has improved for small business exporters and innovators. Credit availability and credit conditions are significant concerns for small businesses, given that the ability to obtain credit is essential to their development.

A more comprehensive financing survey has been conducted by Statistics Canada for the 2017 reference year. That survey involved a much larger sample size allowing for deeper analysis. The results from that survey will be available in November 2018.

The current project aims to assess how credit availability conditions for small businesses are evolving during 2018 and if the contract option year is exercised, how they will evolve in 2019.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS/OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this project is to collect factual data on credit availability conditions for small businesses (1 to 99 employees). The reference period will be January 1 to December 31^st 2018. Data collection is expected to start in January 2019 so that the project can be completed by March 24, 2019.

An option year may be exercised at Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada’s discretion. The reference period for the option year will be will be January 1 to December 31^st 2019. Under that option, data collection is expected to start in January 2020 so that the project can be completed by March 31, 2020.

The purpose of the project is to answer various questions regarding:

• financing application and approval rates
• financing amounts requested and received
• interest rates and length of loans
• collateral required to obtain financing
• intended use of required financing
• business and owner characteristics
• structure of the industry and the region

SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall perform with care, skill, diligence and efficiency all of the tasks that are required to complete the following deliverables to the satisfaction of Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada:

• In collaboration with Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada, the contractor shall deliver an Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada approved survey questionnaire that will have a maximum of 30 questions and which is largely based on the 2016 survey questionnaire (Appendix A).
• The contractor shall develop an Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada approved sampling strategy for the regions (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba/Saskatchewan, Alberta and British-Columbia) and industries (Primary sector (mining included), Construction, Manufacturing, Wholesale/Retail Trade, Transportation/Warehousing, Professional Services, Accommodation & Food Services, Other Services, Other Sectors).
• The contractor shall establish the weighting required to ensure that the survey results are representative of the population of small businesses in Canada. A list of the industrial sectors that will not be included in this survey is provided in Appendix B.
• The contractor shall conduct the survey during the stipulated period using the data collection strategy that was described in its bid (telephone interview, on-line survey, mail survey, etc.).
• The contractor shall deliver to Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada a clean data file that can be used by Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada for analysis and cross-tabulation purposes. The data file will be in SAS format or a SAS-compatible format, containing all the survey results, the screening questions. The record layout for the data or a data dictionary will also be provided.
• The contractor shall deliver to Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada the required data tables indicating the margins of error for all the results, displayed by industry, region and business size (1-4, 5-19, 20-99 employees);
• The contractor shall deliver to Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada a methodology report that describes all of the key aspects of the survey process that it used for this project such as: the survey frame, the sampling strategy, the weights that were applied to the data, and the data collection details.