B.C. had the steepest drop in building permits this May, while much of the rest of the country continued an upward trend in housing construction, according to Statistics Canada.
Building permits rose to $7.3 billion in May, up 4.5% from April. The value of building permits has been rising for the past five months. The increase in May was led by residential construction in Ontario and non-residential construction in Quebec.
The number of building permits in B.C. fell across all sectors, except industrial buildings.
Calgary was the Canadian city with the sharpest drop in permits, led by a decline in commercial building construction.
Vancouver and Victoria had the next lowest permit numbers. In Vancouver, a decline in multi-family residential construction caused the drop, while Victoria saw a decline in institutional buildings.
