Statistics Canada reported on December 8 that the total value of building permits issued by municipalities across the country in October dropped by 1.5 percent to $8.3 billion.

Five provinces reported declines, the largest of which was a drop of more than 21 percent in British Columbia ($1.3 billion); Quebec reported an increase of just over 12 percent ($1.7 billion). Activity in Ontario dropped by 3.4 percent to $3.36 billion.

Investment in residential construction across the country dropped to below the $5-billion mark for the first time since March. October’s permit totals reached $4.9 billion. The value of permits declined for both single (-2.9 percent) and multi-family (-3.4 percent) dwellings. Residential construction activity in Ontario dropped by 7.4 percent to $2.0 billion. The province reported lower demands in both the single-dwelling and multi-unit sectors.

Meanwhile, investment in the non-residential sector gained slightly—by 1.1 percent to $3.3 billion. Investments dropped in the industrial (-1.1 percent) and commercial sectors (-5.3 percent), but gained nearly 25 percent in the institutional space.

Province wide, activity in the non-residential sector jumped by 3.4 percent to $1.3 billion. An increase in activity of more than $72 million in Ontario’s institutional sector drove a good deal of this change. A gain was also reported in the province’s industrial sector (7 percent), while activity in the commercial sector lost ground (-6.1 percent).