Thunder Bay leads permit increases

January 27, 2018

Calgary, St. John, Sudbury and Thunder Bay were the unlikely leaders in construction permit building values in 2017, all with triple-digit increases from 2016, reports Statistics Canada.
As of November 2017, Thunder Bay had posted the highest increase, with seasonally adjusted permit values soaring 416.8 per cent from a year earlier, to $21 million.
Cities with the worst building permit spending performance included Moncton, down 56.6 per cent to $24.8 million, and Quebec City, which suffered a 53.8 per cent contraction to $71.2 million.
In the major urban centres, Toronto permit values through the first 11 months of last year were $1.58 billion, up 12.8 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Vancouver was down 18.3 per cent to $708 million; and Montreal was up 5.6 per cent to $719 million in the same period.
Calgary saw a 123 per cent spike in permit values to $494 million, while Edmonton was down 7 per cent to $489 million.
Overall, total building permit values in Canada through the first 11 months of last year reached $45.9 billion, down 0.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier.