Seasonally adjusted spending on the construction of buildings in Alberta rose by 25.9 per cent in May and by 0.8 per cent in June, but remained 5.6 per cent below where it was in February.
The residential and non-residential sectors have been on different tracks.
Residential spending experienced a large drop in April (-38.2 per cent), but bounced back by 50.6 per cent in May and another 3.4 per cent in June. Spending in June was off by 4.9 per cent compared to February and by 6.9 per cent compared to the same month the year before.
Non-residential spending did not drop off the same cliff as residential construction did in April and, in turn, did not experience a correspondingly large bounce back in May.
Non-residential spending has, instead, been falling steadily since early last year with investment down by between 0.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent in 16 of the last 17 months. On a year-over-year basis, non-residential spending was off by 13.9 per cent in June or double the residential amount.
If we go back to June 2018, we find that residential spending in February 2020 was 21.1 per cent lower than two years earlier while non-residential investment was 8.0 per cent lower. Combined, pre-pandemic spending on building construction was 16.7 per cent below where it was in mid-2018.
So while the pandemic has certainly not helped, Alberta’s construction sector went into COVID-19 on its back foot after a tough year in 2019. Building construction spending remains, in fact, about a third below where it was in 2014 when the provincial economy was booming.
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