Profit squeeze: Excess corporate profits are making inflation tougher for Canadians
Profit squeeze: Excess corporate profits are making inflation tougher for Canadians
By David Macdonald
The Monitor
Fast facts:
- In 2021, corporate pre-tax profits in Canada hit an all-time high of $445 billion, above the previous record set in 2018.
- The oil & gas extraction industry made $24.2 billion more in 2021 than pre-pandemic—in the third quarter of 2021, the industry recorded its highest quarterly profit.
- Canada’s big banks saw excess pre-tax profits of $16.1 billion in 2021 as their annual profits of $40.4 billion (average of 2018 and 2019) rose to $56.5 billion in 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, the big banks’ pre-tax profit margins also hit an all-time high.
- Food and beverage stores, such as grocery stores, made $3.9 billion more pre-tax profit in 2021 than they did before the pandemic. Grocery stores faced higher input costs, as their cost of goods hit a record high in the third quarter of 2021. But the industry hit record-high profit margins in the first quarter of 2021 anyway, squeezing more profit out of every dollar that it received in revenue.
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