Business ownership among persons with disabilities in Canada

By Amélie Lafrance-Cooke and Robby Bemrose, Economic and Social Reports, January 18, 2022
This paper provides a sociodemographic profile of business owners with disabilities using 2017 administrative tax data. It evaluates how sociodemographic characteristics of business owners with disabilities intersect and compares them with those of business owners without disabilities. It also examines the firm-level measures of these businesses, including firm size, industry, exports and financial characteristics. According to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability, approximately 3.7 million Canadians aged 25 to 64 have a disability and, as a result, are limited in their daily activities. While about 65% of these working-age Canadians were also in the labour force, they are disproportionately underrepresented in the labour force compared with persons without disabilities. Previous research has shown that persons with disabilities face challenges and barriers in the labour market that can negatively impact their earnings. The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the vulnerability of this population, particularly in terms of unique challenges that they may face, which intensified over the pandemic.