Sector reaching for sky
Province
Construction cranes are a feature of the Vancouver skyline as seen from the Cambie Street Bridge. ICK PROCAYLO FILE PHOTO — THE PROVINCE
B.C.’s construction industry looks set to continue its winning ways, based on a 16.1-per-cent jump in building permits issued in February.
The value of permits in B.C. in February rose to $944.9 million from $814.1 million in January, Statistics Canada said yesterday.
The province posted the country’s second-largest gains in dollar terms after Alberta, where building permits climbed 11.8 per cent to $1.3 billion, StatsCan said.
Residential permits in B.C. climbed 15.1 per cent, it said.
Non-residential, which includes institutional, commercial and industrial, rose 19.9 per cent.
In Vancouver, building permits rose by 5.3 per cent to $447.5 million while Victoria‘s soared 37.3 per cent to $74.3 million.
Building permits are regarded as a leading indicator for construction activity.
Nationally, Canadian building permits declined unexpectedly in February for a fourth consecutive month, led by a sharp drop in non-residential construction plans in Ontario.
Municipalities across the country issued $5.8 billion worth of building permits in February, down one per cent from January, the federal agency said.
The value of non-residential permits fell 25.6 per cent to $1.9 billion — the lowest level in more than a year –due to declines in institutional, commercial and industrial sectors, it said.
The institutional sector dropped 35.7 per cent to $452 million, the commercial component lost 16.2 per cent to $1.2 billion and the industrial sector fell 39.4 per cent to $265 million.
In the residential sector, building permit values were up 18.2 per cent to $3.9 billion, with multi- and single-family permits accounting for much of the gain in February.
“Nationally, a marked increase in residential intentions was not enough to offset a decline in intentions in the non-residential sector,”StatsCan said.
“February’s decline resulted from much lower non-residential construction intentions in Ontario. If the province were excluded, the total value of building permits nationally would have increased 9.8 per cent, instead of declining one per cent.”
Most analysts had expected the value of building permits to rise by more than one per cent in February. Values fell 3.5 per cent in January.
“Despite the weak headline number, the housing sector remains on solid footing in Canada,” said Jacqui Douglas, economics strategist at TD Securities.
