The number of Greater Victoria residents filing for bankruptcies is down, but the number of residents making alternative settlements is up.
Quarterly statistics from Industry Canada show that 1,070 residents living in the Victoria Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) either filed for consumer bankruptcy or settled debts under conditions other than the existing terms under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act through the first nine months of 2019.
That figure is up 7.5 per cent from the same period in 2018. The number of actual bankruptcies is down 12.1 per cent to 312 through the first nine months of 2019 from 355 through the first nine months of 2018. But the number of alternative arrangements is up to 758 from 640.
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Business bankruptcies, meanwhile, are up significantly during the same period, namely 225 per cent. This figure, however, appears deceptive, because the actual number of bankruptcies is numerically low at 13 through the first nine months of 2019, up from four during the same period in 2018.
This said, more recent numbers point towards an uptick in actual bankruptcies across British Columbia. They show 339 consumer bankruptcies in November across BC, up four per cent from the same month in 2018. The recorded number of business bankruptcies, meanwhile, rose by 40 per cent, albeit from a low level, to a total of seven.
Looking at national numbers for November 2019, the total number of bankruptcies filed was down 3.8 per cent, as both consumer (down 3.6 per cent) and business (down eight) bankruptcies declined.
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