Construction activity tops $154M in December
Jumps 17.2% over last December
Building permit values in Saskatchewan were up 17.2 per cent to $154.3 million in December, compared with $131.6 million during the same period last year, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.
But December permits were down 35 per cent from the $237.4 million racked up in November, the federal agency said.
Residential building permits totalled $111.0 million in December, slightly above the $98.4 million issued in December 2012, but 8.9 per cent below the $121.8 million issued in November.
Non-residential construction permits totalled $43.3 million 30.4 per cent higher than the $33.2 million in December 2012, but a whopping 62.5 per cent below the $115.6 million in non-residential permits issued in November.
Across Canada, the value of building permits issued by municipalities declined 4.1 per cent to $6.5 billion in December, following a 6.6 per cent decrease in November.
A drop in plans for commercial buildings and multi-family dwellings in Ontario and British Columbia were responsible for much of the December decrease at the national level. “Saskatchewan followed a distant third, as a result of lower construction intentions for commercial and institutional buildings as well as single-family dwellings,’’ the report said.
The agency says the value of building permits for 2013 as a whole edged down 0.1 per cent from 2012 to $80.8 billion.
The value of residential permits fell for a second consecutive month in December, slipping 9.3 per cent to $3.7 billion.
In the non-residential sector, the value of permits rose 3.7 per cent to $2.8 billion in December, following a 4.5 per cent decrease the previous month.
The value of permits was down in seven provinces in December, with Ontario and British Columbia posting the largest declines.