New insolvency data shows Canadian households are buckling under mounting debt pressure, with more than 37,000 people filing for insolvency in just the first three months of 2026.

According to figures from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, 37,121 Canadians sought relief under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act between January and March of this year, working out to roughly 17 insolvency filings every hour.

The numbers mark the highest quarterly insolvency total since the fallout of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Consumer insolvencies were up 8.5 per cent compared to the same period last year, and climbed 6.5 per cent from the final quarter of 2025.

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The financial strain is not limited to households. Another 1,232 Canadian businesses filed for insolvency during the same three-month period. While business insolvencies were slightly lower than a year ago, they rose nearly 10 per cent from the previous quarter, suggesting corporate financial pressure may also be intensifying.

The insolvency spike comes as Canadians carry record levels of debt. A recent TransUnion report found household debt across all credit products reached $2.6 trillion by the end of 2025, fuelled in part by rising mortgage borrowing.

Meanwhile, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says mortgage delinquency rates have climbed to 0.24 per cent, the highest level since 2021.

Joshua Harris, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee and CEO of Harris & Partners Inc., says the insolvency figures reflect what many Canadians have already been experiencing privately for months.

“The latest consumer insolvency data suggests more Canadians are reaching a financial breaking point,” Harris said. “By mid-2025, more than half of Canadians reported their income was no longer covering basic expenses like rent, food, and bills.”

Harris says many Canadians have already exhausted any financial safety net they once had.

“Our surveys found that more than three quarters of Canadians could not cover a $500 emergency without borrowing,” he said. “When there is no buffer left, it does not take much to tip someone over the edge.”

The firm’s Financial Resilience Index, based on more than 12,000 survey responses, found that nearly 90 per cent of Canadians were living paycheque to paycheque by late 2025.

Harris also warned about the emotional toll of prolonged financial pressure, noting that 60 per cent of Canadians surveyed reported going to bed worried about money, while nearly half said financial stress was affecting their sleep.

“We are not talking about people who have been reckless,” Harris said. “We are talking about people who did everything right and still ran out of road.”