Canadian institutional construction continued to rise in the third quarter.
According to Statistics Canada figures released Friday, institutional construction increased for the seventh consecutive quarter, primarily as a result of higher investment in educational institutions in eight provinces and the Northwest Territories. Spending on new institutional buildings jumped 5.5 per cent to $3.3 billion on a seasonally-adjusted basis, offsetting an overall 3.9% decline in non-residential construction.
Alberta, hit hard by the recession, showed the largest year-over-year gain in institutional construction, a whopping 44%, to $660.9 million from $458.8 million in the third quarter of 2008. The large increase, which contrasted with a 14.2% decline in overall non-residential construction, was attributed to higher spending on health and educational institutions.
Quebec enjoyed a healthy 14.5% boost to $601.8 million from $525.4 million in the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Ontario experienced a 10.3% rise on a year-over-year basis to $1.31 billion from $1.19 billion. However, investment dipped slightly to $from $1.32 billion in the second quarter of this year.
B.C. institutional construction increased 3.3% to $350.8 million from $339.5 million in the second quarter, but remained flat in relation to the third quarter of 2008.
The institutional-construction increases contrasted sharply with the overall decline in non-residential investment. The StatsCan figures show non-residential construction spending fell for the third straight quarter to $10.39 billion from $10.81 billion.
Alberta, Ontario and B.C. suffered the sharpest drops.
(Monte Stewart writes about commercial real estate for Avison Young, www.avisonyoung.com)
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