Sun
Building permits fell in January for the fourth consecutive month in Canada, led by a drop in residential activity as the sector continued to cool amid a deep economic downturn.
Statistics Canada said yesterday the value of permits fell 4.6% to $4.43-billion during the month.
The value of residential permits fell 17.5% to $2.2-billion, with declines in both multi-family and single-family applications.
Non-residential permits rose 12.2% to $2.3-billion in December.
“This was due mainly to higher construction intentions for institutional and commercial permits in Ontario,” the federal agency said. “Increases in both institutional and commercial permits were not enough to offset the decreases in the value of residential intentions in five provinces,” it said.
Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist at TD Securities, said the “pace of building activity in Canada has come against some pretty strong headwinds over the past few months, as economic growth has hit the skids.
“The pace of construction activity will continue to moderate in the near term as the correction gathers traction.”
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