Brian Williams has been swamped with work amid the slowdown in Saskatchewan’s once-booming oilpatch.

“We have been busy this past year here, certainly much more than last,” said Williams, a bankruptcy trustee with Cameron-Okolita in Regina.

The number of bankruptcies filed in Saskatchewan rose 38.5 per cent in June from a year earlier, the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said Wednesday. The increase, which was the largest percentage-wise among the provinces, was driven by a 43.2 per cent year-over-year spike in consumer bankruptcies.

Laid-off oil workers and their families aren’t the only ones hurting, however. Williams says the economic slowdown has had a trickle-down effect on everyone from vehicle dealers to restaurant workers.

“People who work in the oilpatch tend to make decent money and they tend to spend it,” Williams said. “Of course, when they’re not making that money, they’re not spending the money.”

In addition to layoffs, consumer spending and debt has contributed to the rise in bankruptcies in the province, Williams says.

“You could say that the economic slowdown is something that pushes the people who are filing (for bankruptcy) over the edge,” he said.

“But it’s also symptomatic of the fact that people are spending and consumer debt levels are at record highs.”

In contrast, business bankruptcies declined 12.5 per cent in Saskatchewan on a year-over-year basis in June. Williams says there’s usually a six-month delay in business bankruptcies after the economy starts to slow down.

“When something catastrophic happens or the economy takes a dip and people get laid off, it usually takes time before they end up in an office like ours,” he said.

“When the work slows down, they basically want to weather the storm.”

Williams says while the situation in Saskatchewan’s oilpatch is starting to improve, he expects to remain busy with bankruptcy filings for at least the next year.

A report released earlier this month by credit-monitoring firm TransUnion Canada shows Saskatchewan residents carried an average non-mortgage debt of $24,036 in the second quarter of 2016, up 2.9 per cent from a year earlier. That figure was second only to Alberta, where the average debt level rose 1.4 per cent to $27,583.

Saskatchewan’s delinquency rate climbed 11.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis, while Alberta saw a 14.7 per cent increase. Meanwhile, the serious delinquency rate – the ratio of debt accounts 90 days or more past due – rose to 3.4 per cent in Saskatchewan and 3.1 per cent in Alberta, well above the national average of 2.7 per cent.

In a July 2015 report, TransUnion warned Saskatchewan and Alberta would face delinquency pressures in 2016 and 2017 because of falling oil prices.