The chronic complaint that Canada has not built enough new homes to keep up with our population growth was reinforced by this week’s StatsCanada construction report. It looked at both residential and non-residential development.
For Saskatchewan, it was two completely different stories. On the residential front, we were a laggard. At $330 million in new construction, we did not keep up with other regions. Saskatchewan is home to roughly three-percent of the national population but that figure represents about two-percent of the Canada-wide investment in residential construction in the month.
On the non-residential front, though, we were at the head of the class.
Saskatchewan’s $180 million commitment amounted to an increase of 11-percent over the previous month. That was the strongest expansion among all the provinces.
Nationally, the increase was only one-percent with construction of commercial buildings – things such as offices or retail outlets – accounting for nearly half of all the expenditures. Institutional or government construction amounted to nearly a third of the activity and industrial facilities like factories made up the last quarter of the $7 billion total.
