— Martin Ellis, Halifax
The value of dwelling permits issued by Canadian municipalities slid for the second straight month, government data revealed on Tuesday. The report released by Statistics Canada showed building permits in Canada dropped 5.8% to a total of $7.0B over the month of March, following the downwardly revised 2.8% plunge registered in February and falling well behind the 4.2% gain eyed by most of the economists. The fall was mainly driven by weaker building intentions for multi-family apartment buildings in nine regions of the country, with British Columbia and Ontario registering the biggest drops. In the meantime, single-family dwelling construction intentions surged 3% to $2.7B in the reported period, putting Ontario and Alberta atop of the four provinces that booked gains. In the non-residential sector, the value of building permits inched 0.5% down to settle at $2.4B in March, with lower commercial building intentions being the main contributor to the decline. Still, the latter was almost completely offset by a 9.1% jump in the institutional component, led by Quebec and Ontario.
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