Canada Nonresidential Construction Investment Falls in 3Q

By MDM Staff

January 15, 2010

More about: Building Materials/Construction, Canada, Economy

Decline in Canada's nonresidential sector was due to commercial construction decreases.

Canadian investment in non-residential construction was $10.2 billion in current dollars in the fourth quarter, down 2.5% from the third quarter and down 7.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Statistics Canada. The decrease was largely driven by a continuing downward trend of spending on commercial building construction and to a lesser extent by a similar declining trend in industrial building construction.

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Investors spent $5.7 billion on commercial projects, down 5% from the third quarter and 15.8% below the fourth quarter of 2008. Investment in industrial projects fell 6.8% from the previous quarter to $1 billion in the fourth quarter and was 23.2% below the fourth quarter of 2008. This is consistent with the decline in the value of building permits recorded during the economic downturn.

In contrast, spending in institutional projects continued to increase, rising 3.3% from the third quarter to $3.5 billion in the fourth quarter, and up 20.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008.

Overall, seven provinces posted decreases in the fourth quarter. Alberta and Ontario reported the largest declines, mainly due to lower spending on commercial construction.

Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the three territories posted gains in the fourth quarter, which were largely attributable to higher spending on institutional building construction.

More details here.

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