Building permits down 14.5% across Canada

According to Statistics Canada, the value of building permits issued by municipalities across Canada fell 14.5% in May. Declines were recorded in five provinces, led by Ontario.

For non-residential construction the decline was higher — down 16% in May compared to April. The total value of non-residential building permits across Canada for May was $2.8 billion.

The decline followed two sharp rises of 25% and 32% in the previous months and left the figures still substantially higher than they were at the beginning of the year.

The largest decline in May was in institutional buildings, which fell 34%. A drop in medical buildings was held largely responsible.

In industrial buildings, permit values across Canada fell 15.6% in May, again following three months of advances.

In residential buildings, the numbers declined by 13.5% to $3.9 billion in May. Ontario and Alberta were responsible for much of the decrease.

For multi-family dwellings the values fell for a second consecutive month, down 22.9%. The decrease was evident in every province and territory except British Columbia, New Brunswick and Nunavut.

Statistic Canada surveys 2,400 municipalities, representing 95% of the Canadian population for the building permits survey. The figures exclude engineering projects such as waterworks, sewers, and land.

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