The number of bankruptcies across the country was 43 per cent higher in September than at the same point a year ago, government data shows.

The latest figures provided by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada show the increase is disproportionately slanted towards consumer bankruptcies over business insolvencies. The September figure for the former was up by 45.5 per cent in the last year; the latter by only 1.6 per cent.

'A lot of businesses are just closing their doors'—Bankruptcy trustee Andy Fisher

"It's been like this the whole time. The recession has hit consumers harder," said Andy Fisher, a partner at bankruptcy trustee A. Farber & Partners.

"It's got to do with unemployment," he said. "It's consumer driven in part because unemployment continues to rise, which makes it hard to keep up with bills. But companies are better structured to handle the recession because they weren't as debt-addled as consumers," he said.

For the last 12 months as a whole, total insolvencies increased by 33.6 per cent compared to the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2008.

But business insolvencies specifically were 6.5 per cent lower in the 12 months leading up to the end of September. The construction, transportation, warehousing, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and retail trade sectors all saw reductions in the number of insolvencies.

Bankruptcies among utilities were among the few risers, up 320 per cent when the two 12-month periods are compared. But the sample size was small. Only five utility bankruptcies were recorded up to September 2008 whereas 21 were registered in the year up to September 2009.

Consumer driven

Consumer bankruptcies are disproportionately showing up in the data, Fisher suggests, because they must ultimately go through the bankruptcy process when they can't keep up with their bills.

"In order to have a bankruptcy process, you have to have some sort of asset sale," he said. "But a lot of businesses are just closing their doors," which wouldn't necessarily result in a formal insolvency filing, he said.

Another factor is that consumers are more likely than businesses to wait too long to address the problem.

"People hope they can hold on, then they wait too long and all they're left with is bankruptcy," he said. "But corporations are a lot more financially sophisticated and are generally better at seeing the warning signs."

Provincially, total insolvencies were up 70.2 per cent in Alberta, the highest level across the country. The gain of 18.1 per cent in Nova Scotia was the smallest increase.