Some rare good news on the business front for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Vice-President for Alberta and B.C. Richard Truscott says after several months of decline, business confidence is creeping back up.

"We saw the business confidence index bounce back about six points on its hundred point scale, back up to 34.6 so not bad, but I've got to say there's a long way to climb still and hard to say if this is part of a longer term trend or a blip, only time will tell," he says.

Despite the small rebound in the overall outlook, 39 percent of small businesses in Alberta still describe the general health of their business as ‘bad’, down three points from April.  Only 19 per cent characterize it as ‘good’, up four points from the previous month.  Small business hiring plans remain negative, with 33 per cent of owners expecting to cut back and only 8 per cent looking to hire.

Truscott says the gradually increasing price of oil is a big reason that confidence is up.

"If I had to give a good guess I would say it's the oil price, I think, like other Albertans, entrepreneurs are looking at that price of oil and we saw it briefly exceed $50 a barrel, it's been on an upward trend, that's good news, that's certainly something business owners are watching," Truscott says. "I think that probably has as much impact as anything else."

Truscott says 39 percent of small businesses in Alberta still describe the general health of their business as ‘bad’ while only 19 per cent characterize it as ‘good’.

He says layering on a carbon tax certainly won't do a lot of good for confidence among business owners down the road.

On a scale between 0 and 100, an index above 50 means owners expecting their business’ performance to be stronger in the next year outnumber those expecting weaker performance.  Normally, the economy is growing at its potential when the index level of between 65 and 75.

The national Business Barometer index is 58.2.  The provincial numbers were: PEI (75.0), British Columbia (67.1), Ontario (65.8), Nova Scotia (63.9), Quebec (60.4), Manitoba (57.7), New Brunswick (57.0), Saskatchewan (51.5) and Newfoundland & Labrador (44.6).

The May 2016 findings are based on 684 responses, collected from a stratified random sample of CFIB members, to a controlled-access web survey.  Data reflect responses received through May 16.  Findings are considered accurate to +\- 3.7 per cent 19 times in 20.