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TORONTO: A majority of Canadians remain confident about their finances heading into 2016, but the percentage holding a positive view is down from a year ago, according to a new poll from one of the country’s big banks.
The CIBC (TSX:CM) poll found that more than two thirds of Canadians, or 69 per cent, felt positive about their finances going into the new year. Still, that was down five per cent from a year ago, with the drop centred mainly in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
In fact, the survey found that Alberta, hard hit by trouble in the oilpatch, now is the least positive region in the country. Just 62 per cent of Albertans surveyed felt confident about their finances, down 21 percentage points from a year ago.
Sentiment was also lower in Ontario at 68 per cent, down from 73 per cent going into 2015, and in Quebec at 71 per cent, down from 78 per cent. Sentiment in British Columbia declined marginally to 71 per cent from 72 per cent.
Confidence improved sharply in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, up seven percentage points at 78 per cent, while those surveyed in Atlantic Canada were slightly more positive, up two percentage points at 67 per cent.
The poll was conducted Dec. 7-8 among 1,508 Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panellists. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they so not randomly sample the population.
