Statistics Canada's June 2026 business counts, released on August 14, 2026, list 16,754 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractor locations with employees across Canada, plus 13,244 locations without employees (Table 33-10-1174-01; Table 33-10-1175-01). For an HVAC owner, that is the closest public count of the companies bidding for the same searches, the same map pack and the same homeowners. This report sets out what the table says and, separately and labelled, what we think it means for marketing.
What the table measures
The answer first: the table counts business locations by industry code and employee band, not companies and not revenue.
The industry is NAICS 238220, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors. It does not separate a heat pump specialist from a drain-cleaning company, so read every number as "HVAC and plumbing combined". The non-employer table only includes locations that are incorporated or report more than $30,000 in revenue, so a large tail of very small sole operators is outside it. Statistics Canada also notes that method changes can move these counts between releases and advises against reading them as a time series.
The national picture by size
Most contractor locations with employees are small. Of the 16,754:
| Employee band | Locations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 9,646 | 57.6% |
| 5 to 9 | 3,187 | 19.0% |
| 10 to 19 | 1,988 | 11.9% |
| 20 or more | 1,933 | 11.5% |
Shares are our calculation from the published counts. Only 13 locations nationally had 500 or more employees.
Our analysis: a typical HVAC owner is not competing against a national brand in most searches. They are competing against a few dozen firms of two to fifteen people, many of whom answer the phone from a truck. That is useful information, because small competitors usually share the same weaknesses: thin websites, unreplied reviews, no tracking and slow replies after hours.
How the provinces compare
Ontario holds the largest share of contractor locations, followed by Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta. The table below gives the June 2026 counts.
| Province or territory | With employees | Without employees | Share with 1–4 employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 6,525 | 6,401 | 60.2% |
| Quebec | 2,983 | 1,401 | 53.9% |
| British Columbia | 2,933 | 2,110 | 60.3% |
| Alberta | 2,097 | 1,969 | 57.7% |
| Manitoba | 516 | 350 | 47.7% |
| Saskatchewan | 512 | 412 | 49.4% |
| Nova Scotia | 484 | 273 | 53.3% |
| New Brunswick | 360 | 161 | 54.2% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 179 | 61 | 48.6% |
| Prince Edward Island | 105 | 65 | 60.0% |
| Yukon | 28 | 23 | 42.9% |
| Northwest Territories | 25 | 15 | 56.0% |
| Nunavut | 7 | 3 | n/a |
Our analysis: two patterns stand out. Ontario has almost as many non-employer locations as employer ones, which points to a crowded field of owner-operators who often price low and advertise lightly. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador have a lower share of the smallest firms, so a mid-sized competitor with a real office and crew is more common there. Our regional pages work through each province in more detail.
What this means for your marketing
The practical point: in a market made mostly of small firms, the gap between you and the field is execution, not budget.
- Count your real competitors. Search your three main services in your three main towns from a phone and write down every company in the map pack and on page one. In most markets you will see fewer than 20 names.
- Audit them the same way you audit yourself. Check review count, reply rate, photos, website speed and whether a call is answered. Our benchmarking service does this as a dated, written report.
- Expect owner-operators to compete on price. Where non-employer counts are high, as in Ontario, lead with response time, licensing and warranty clarity rather than discounts.
- Use size as a positioning line. A 10-person shop can honestly promise things a one-truck operation cannot, such as same-week installs or a dedicated dispatcher, but only if you can deliver them.
Limits of this reading
These counts show how many competitors exist, not how good they are or how much they spend.
They also say nothing about demand. Pair them with housing and fuel data, such as the heating-fuel shares on our province pages, before deciding where to expand. If you want to see how this kind of evidence turned into results for real HVAC companies, the results page shows our case studies with named clients.
Call, text or email us if you want the count for your own census area pulled and benchmarked. We market HVAC companies; we are not a contractor and we do not install or repair equipment.
Frequently asked questions
Does NAICS 238220 count only HVAC companies?
No. The code is plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, so it mixes plumbers, HVAC firms and combined shops. Treat it as the ceiling of your competitive set, not an exact count of furnace and heat pump companies.
Can I compare these counts with last year's release?
Statistics Canada advises against using business counts as a time series, because method changes can move the numbers. Use each release as a snapshot of the market's shape, not as a growth trend.
Why does the size of competitors matter for marketing?
Small firms rarely run full-time marketing. In a market where most competitors have one to four employees, a complete Google Business Profile, fast replies and a clear website often outweigh a bigger ad budget.
Are businesses without employees included?
They are in a separate table. Statistics Canada counted 13,244 locations without employees in the same industry, limited to those that are incorporated or report more than $30,000 in revenue.