Declines seen in both residential and non-residential construction
Investment in building construction across Canada decreased by 4.5% to $18.4 billion in June, according to new data from Statistics Canada (StatCan).
Figures from StatCan showed that both residential and non-residential construction investments were down month-over-month from May following a period of sustained growth from November 2020 to April 2021.
Read more: How residential construction has fared through the pandemic
Broken down, residential construction investment fell 5.8% month-over-month in June to $13.8 billion – with single-family investment seeing a 7.3% decline in June to $7.5 billion, and multi-unit construction investment falling 3.8% to $6.2 billion.
Quebec reported the largest decrease in investment – mainly confined to the city of Montréal – followed by Ontario and British Columbia.
Meanwhile, after posting slight increases for the last six months, non-residential construction investment fell by 0.4% to $4.6 billion in June, which reflected declines in commercial and industrial investment.
Commercial construction investment fell by 1% to $2.5 billion, with the largest drop coming from Ontario – down 2.2% as projects such as storage facilities in the cities of Ajax and Brampton began to slow down after peaking earlier this year.
Industrial construction investment was down 1.2% to $825 million in June. StatCan said minimal growth in four provinces “was not enough to counter the decline.”
