August 6 , 2009

ICBA Commentary: Building Permits June 2009

The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) offered the following commentary on today's Statistics Canada release of the building permits survey for June 2009.

“We will continue to see slower construction numbers for some time yet,” said Philip Hochstein, President of the ICBA. “Times continue to be incredibly challenging for contractors, both in the home building and renovation market as well as the commercial and industrial sectors of our industry.”

Hochstein noted that there are lots of small projects going out to tender, attracting huge numbers of bidders. “It’s refreshing to see the smaller projects getting underway, but there are no larger projects in the $15-$30 million range,” he added. “Governments rushed to increase infrastructure spending, but required that all those projects be completed in a relatively short time frame. So the unintended consequence of the government’s eagerness to advance construction is that bigger contractors are competing with smaller companies for smaller jobs, and all are still suffering.”

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