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In April, the value of non-residential building permits increased by 32.2 per cent due to institutional and commercial construction intentions.

The value of building permits rose 5.4 per cent to $6.7 billion across the country this past April—this represents a 48.2 per cent increase over the same time last year.

As noted in Statistics Canada's The Daily, the non-residential sector values increased by 32.2 per cent, reaching $2.8 billion. This was due to construction intentions for institutional buildings in six provinces, and commercial permits in seven.

The value of permits in the residential sector fell eight per cent from March to $3.9 billion, mainly due to the decline of single- and multi-family permits in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

Other facts from the report include:
• the institutional sector increased 70 per cent to $882 million;
• the commercial sector permit value increased 29.1 per cent to $1.5 billion;
• the value of industrial permits declined 4.7 per cent to $415 billion (Alberta had the largest decrease, while Ontario recorded the biggest gain);
• building permit values for single-family homes decreased six per cent to $2.6 billion; and
• the total permit value was up in 17 of the 34 census metropolitan areas.