Manitoba building up steam

June 5, 2009
Winnipeg Free Press
Written by: Murray McNeill

Experiences one of the biggest jumps in permit activity in Canada

Manitoba rode a wave of new non-residential construction projects to one of the biggest increases in building-permit activity in the country in April.

Manitoba municipalities issued $124.6 million worth of permits in April -- a 41.7 per cent increase from March's $87.9 million, new Statistics Canada figures issued Thursday show. That was the third-biggest percentage gain among the six provinces that posted increases for the month.

It was also in sharp contrast to what happened at the national level, where Canada saw permit values fall by 5.4 per cent to $4.3 billion from $4.6 billion in March.

And nationally, non-residential permit activity was down by 14.4 per cent, while residential permit activity was up by 4.1 per cent.

The driving force behind April's strong showing in Manitoba was a 143.5-per-cent jump in the value of permits issued for non-residential construction projects ($56.3 million compared with $23.1 million in March).

The value of residential permits was up by a much more modest 5.3 per cent to $68.3 million.
The executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Construction Association said the non-residential permit numbers can be volatile from one month to the next -- they were down 54.9 per cent in March.

That's because of the size of some projects, Ron Hambley said. A good example is the almost $31-million permit that was issued in April for foundation work on the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights that's under construction at The Forks.

But overall, the non-residential side of the industry has remained busy in spite of the recession, Hambley said, "and all indications are that it will stay fairly strong through the summer."

StatsCan figures confirm that non-residential permit values were up 22.9 per cent after the first four months of this year, while residential permit values were down by a similar amount -- 23.5 per cent -- from the same period last year.

Hambley said last year was a record year for building in Manitoba.

One of the busiest places in the province for non-residential construction is the Richardson International Airport campus in northwest Winnipeg.

There are five major projects at different stages of development at the airport, including a new $585-million terminal, Canada Post's new $100-million mail-sorting facility, Greyhound Canada's new $10-million bus terminal, a $14-million expansion of the Four Points Sheraton Winnipeg hotel, and a $20-million-plus expansion of Standard Aero's regional jet-engine overhaul facility.

That's on top of all the regular capital works projects the airport is undertaking.

"There's got to be close to a billion dollars worth of construction and capital works programs going on out here," Winnipeg Airports Authority CEO Barry Rempel said in an interview. "It's actually pretty exciting."

He said the Standard Aero expansion should be completed within the next month or so, the bus terminal and hotel expansion should be done this summer and the Canada Post plant and the new airport terminal should be complete in 2010.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

The ups and downs of permit values

HERE is a breakdown of the percentage increases or decreases in building permit values for April, with the year-to-date change in brackets: