Ontario Construction News staff writer
The total value of building permits across Canada in April was $11.7 billion – a 0.6 per cent drop, with the most significant losses in the residential sector
Residential permits fell 3.3 per cent in April from March totals, with Ontario and British Columbia seeing the biggest losses and seven provinces recording increases.
Ontario’s drop of more than 20 per cent in the value of multi-family building permits was the largest in the country. The average for all provinces was 4.4 per cent.
Large gains in Ontario’s industrial component – 48.8 per cent – pushed the total value of non-residential permits to a five per cent gain at $3.9 billion. Gains were attributed mainly to permits for several mining buildings in the Town of Greenstone.
Commercial permits were down 6.4 per cent, while intentions in the institutional sector rose 7.2 per cent. Ontario posted the largest gain with permits for the expansion project of the Runnymede Healthcare Centre in Toronto and a new elementary school in Kingsville.
