Canada's largest small-business markets are Toronto (262,535 business locations with employees), Montréal (139,898) and Vancouver (121,423), per Statistics Canada's June 2026 counts. AGNT/01, based in Ottawa, sets up AI receptionists, missed-call text back, follow-up and review requests for small businesses and law firms in all 41 metro areas, remotely.
By Aniket Gandhi, AGNT/01 · Last verified October 2026
Toronto leads by a wide margin with 262,535 business locations with employees, followed by Montréal (139,898), Vancouver (121,423), Calgary (65,650) and Edmonton (55,747). Together the 41 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) count 1,008,027 locations with employees, and the top three hold 52.0% of them. Most of these are small: in every CMA at least 43.1% of locations have 1 to 4 employees.
The table below lists all 41 CMAs from most to fewest business locations with employees. The industry columns show how many locations each city has in four front-office-heavy trades we work with: legal services (NAICS 5411), offices of dentists (6212), building equipment contractors such as HVAC, plumbing and electrical (2382) and restaurants (7225). Cities with an AGNT/01 city guide are linked.
| Rank | City (CMA) | Province | Businesses with employees | Share with 1 to 4 employees | Law firms (legal services) | Dentists | Building equipment contractors | Restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toronto | ON | 262,535 | 64.0% | 6,179 | 4,690 | 5,524 | 13,987 |
| 2 | Montréal | QC | 139,898 | 54.5% | 2,143 | 1,852 | 3,239 | 8,326 |
| 3 | Vancouver | BC | 121,423 | 59.3% | 2,936 | 2,061 | 2,829 | 6,358 |
| 4 | Calgary | AB | 65,650 | 60.2% | 1,611 | 1,018 | 1,421 | 3,335 |
| 5 | Edmonton | AB | 55,747 | 56.4% | 1,015 | 911 | 1,472 | 2,986 |
| 6 | Ottawa-Gatineau | ON/QC | 42,163 | 53.2% | 813 | 720 | 1,098 | 2,641 |
| 7 | Winnipeg | MB | 26,921 | 50.0% | 427 | 445 | 597 | 1,438 |
| 8 | Quebec | QC | 26,444 | 50.7% | 323 | 305 | 523 | 1,298 |
| 9 | Hamilton | ON | 25,213 | 56.6% | 435 | 455 | 685 | 1,509 |
| 10 | Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo | ON | 18,531 | 55.0% | 251 | 287 | 494 | 1,086 |
| 11 | London | ON | 16,507 | 54.7% | 313 | 326 | 423 | 949 |
| 12 | Halifax | NS | 15,804 | 49.6% | 240 | 194 | 508 | 935 |
| 13 | Victoria | BC | 15,193 | 55.8% | 326 | 232 | 404 | 802 |
| 14 | St. Catharines-Niagara | ON | 13,037 | 52.3% | 153 | 174 | 381 | 918 |
| 15 | Windsor | ON | 12,432 | 51.4% | 197 | 208 | 313 | 845 |
| 16 | Saskatoon | SK | 11,602 | 49.8% | 160 | 158 | 321 | 691 |
| 17 | Oshawa | ON | 10,315 | 60.0% | 153 | 162 | 328 | 709 |
| 18 | Kelowna | BC | 9,901 | 53.9% | 151 | 134 | 316 | 467 |
| 19 | Regina | SK | 8,875 | 49.3% | 117 | 89 | 237 | 600 |
| 20 | Abbotsford-Mission | BC | 8,538 | 58.5% | 102 | 100 | 262 | 357 |
| 21 | St. John's | NL | 7,919 | 52.8% | 125 | 90 | 232 | 327 |
| 22 | Sherbrooke | QC | 7,113 | 49.5% | 106 | 76 | 175 | 358 |
| 23 | Barrie | ON | 6,967 | 55.1% | 126 | 80 | 264 | 390 |
| 24 | Moncton | NB | 5,667 | 47.9% | 119 | 58 | 154 | 282 |
| 25 | Guelph | ON | 5,422 | 51.4% | 61 | 70 | 137 | 304 |
| 26 | Kingston | ON | 5,289 | 51.2% | 76 | 84 | 150 | 346 |
| 27 | Lethbridge | AB | 4,961 | 51.1% | 80 | 64 | 130 | 233 |
| 28 | Trois-Rivières | QC | 4,867 | 45.7% | 52 | 64 | 113 | 250 |
| 29 | Brantford | ON | 4,728 | 53.8% | 38 | 41 | 154 | 270 |
| 30 | Greater Sudbury | ON | 4,693 | 43.1% | 68 | 50 | 140 | 261 |
| 31 | Saguenay | QC | 4,678 | 43.5% | 43 | 47 | 102 | 173 |
| 32 | Nanaimo | BC | 4,399 | 52.9% | 82 | 65 | 135 | 230 |
| 33 | Kamloops | BC | 4,377 | 49.5% | 101 | 61 | 125 | 204 |
| 34 | Chilliwack | BC | 4,226 | 55.2% | 33 | 38 | 187 | 182 |
| 35 | Saint John | NB | 4,027 | 49.6% | 70 | 50 | 133 | 204 |
| 36 | Peterborough | ON | 3,955 | 49.6% | 52 | 51 | 133 | 229 |
| 37 | Red Deer | AB | 3,865 | 51.4% | 60 | 57 | 95 | 209 |
| 38 | Thunder Bay | ON | 3,730 | 43.3% | 86 | 51 | 97 | 191 |
| 39 | Fredericton | NB | 3,718 | 47.7% | 73 | 37 | 101 | 167 |
| 40 | Drummondville | QC | 3,518 | 50.5% | 38 | 29 | 82 | 124 |
| 41 | Belleville-Quinte West | ON | 3,179 | 48.2% | 37 | 40 | 129 | 181 |
Source: Statistics Canada, Table 33-10-1176-01, June 2026. Checked October 2026. Ottawa-Gatineau is one bi-provincial area (Ontario and Quebec) in Statistics Canada's data, so it is shown as ON/QC. Share with 1 to 4 employees is computed by AGNT/01 as locations with 1 to 4 employees divided by all locations with employees. Statistics Canada counts each operating location separately, and some locations are not yet assigned an industry, so industry counts are floors. Open the source table.
Measured by the share of locations with only 1 to 4 employees, Toronto has the smallest businesses in Canada at 64.0%, followed by Calgary, Oshawa, Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission. At the other end, Greater Sudbury (43.1%), Thunder Bay (43.3%) and Saguenay (43.5%) have the lowest shares. In a business with four people or fewer, the owner is usually also the person who answers the phone, which is exactly where a missed call turns into a lost job.
Toronto (ON): 168,050 of 262,535 locations have 1 to 4 employees.
Calgary (AB): 39,539 of 65,650 locations have 1 to 4 employees.
Oshawa (ON): 6,184 of 10,315 locations have 1 to 4 employees.
Vancouver (BC): 72,039 of 121,423 locations have 1 to 4 employees.
Abbotsford-Mission (BC): 4,993 of 8,538 locations have 1 to 4 employees.
Computed from Statistics Canada Table 33-10-1176-01, June 2026: locations with 1 to 4 employees divided by all locations with employees.
Toronto has the most legal services locations by count (6,179), but relative to the size of the local economy, Calgary ranks first with 24.5 legal services locations per 1,000 business locations with employees. Vancouver (24.2) and Toronto (23.5) follow. Dense legal markets mean more competition for every intake call, so speed to answer matters more. Our AI for law firms page covers intake specifically.
| # | City (CMA) | Province | Legal services locations | Businesses with employees | Per 1,000 businesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calgary | AB | 1,611 | 65,650 | 24.5 |
| 2 | Vancouver | BC | 2,936 | 121,423 | 24.2 |
| 3 | Toronto | ON | 6,179 | 262,535 | 23.5 |
| 4 | Kamloops | BC | 101 | 4,377 | 23.1 |
| 5 | Thunder Bay | ON | 86 | 3,730 | 23.1 |
| 6 | Victoria | BC | 326 | 15,193 | 21.5 |
| 7 | Moncton | NB | 119 | 5,667 | 21.0 |
| 8 | Fredericton | NB | 73 | 3,718 | 19.6 |
| 9 | Ottawa-Gatineau | ON/QC | 813 | 42,163 | 19.3 |
| 10 | London | ON | 313 | 16,507 | 19.0 |
Legal services is NAICS 5411, which includes offices of lawyers, notaries and other legal services; it counts locations with employees, not individual lawyers. Per 1,000 computed by AGNT/01 from Statistics Canada Table 33-10-1176-01, June 2026.
Yes. AGNT/01 is founder-led from Ottawa, where the Ottawa-Gatineau area alone has 42,163 business locations with employees, but we build and run systems for small businesses and law firms across Canada remotely. Kickoffs and check-ins happen over video in your time zone, and every AI receptionist, missed-call text back, follow-up sequence and review request is tested on your real phone lines and calendars before it goes live.
Quebec is the one place the setup changes in a big way. Quebec's Charter of the French language gives consumers the right to be informed and served in French, so for a Quebec business we build the receptionist greeting, texts and follow-up in French first, with English available on request. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) oversees the Charter and publishes guidance for businesses.
An AI receptionist collects names, phone numbers and the reason someone called, which is personal information. Which law governs it depends on the province.
| Law | Where it applies | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| PIPEDA (federal) | Private-sector organizations in provinces without their own substantially similar law, including Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada, plus information that crosses provincial or national borders. | Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada |
| Alberta PIPA | Personal information collected, used and disclosed by private organizations inside Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer). | Alberta King's Printer, SA 2003, c P-6.5 |
| BC PIPA | Private organizations inside British Columbia (Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and the other BC CMAs). | BC Laws, SBC 2003, c 63 |
| Quebec Law 25 | Amends Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, which applies to businesses inside Quebec (Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke and the other Quebec CMAs, and the Gatineau side of Ottawa-Gatineau). | LégisQuébec, CQLR c P-39.1 and the Commission d'accès à l'information |
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada lists the provincial laws that may apply instead of PIPEDA. This is a plain-language summary to plan a build, not legal advice. Our call recording consent guide covers recording notices across Canada.