Municipalities issue $7.4B in building permits for February

OTTAWA -- Statistics Canada says municipalities issued $7.4 billion worth of building permits in February, up 15.5 per cent from January.

The increase was due to increased plans for commercial buildings in Alberta, single-family homes in Ontario and institutional buildings in Quebec.

Economists had expected a gain of 4.8 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.

Residential building permits increased 5.0 per cent to $4.2 billion in February

The value of permits for single-family homes increased 9.6 per cent to $2.4 billion in February, while multi-family homes edged down 0.6 per cent to $1.8 billion.

Municipalities also issued $3.2 billion worth of non-residential permits. That includes $2.0 billion for commercial structures, the highest level since May 2007 and up 56.6 per cent from January.