TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Advisory firm BTY Group said it expects significant private sector investment in resources and ongoing infrastructure spending to keep construction workloads steady with minimal price increases this year.
BTY Group's yearly ‘Market Intelligence Report’ on construction costs across Canada has found Canada’s vast resources sector would be critical to keep the construction market ticking over at a constant rate.
"Strong private sector investment in energy, resource and commercial-retail - with continued infrastructure spending - should offset a cooling housing market in every province except BC [British Columbia] and Alberta," BTY Group managing partner Joe Rekab said.
"We expect reasonably healthy levels of activity across Canada despite a residential slowdown across most of the country and lower-than-expected growth in the US.
The BTY Group said it expected record oil sands investments over the past two years would help sustain Alberta's building boom and drive Canada's strongest residential growth.
Sustained investment in health care and transportation and multibillion-dollar mining and energy projects would keep Quebec on a solid footing, and Saskatchewan would become Canada's growth leader with continuing strong investment in resources and energy development, and high levels of in-migration.
The firm expected the construction workload to be stable in Ontario, buoyed by resurgent commercial development and a sustained, if slightly less ambitious, infrastructure programme, horizontal as well as vertical.
BC is expected to see balanced growth, with increased investment in healthcare, residential construction and private sector nonresidential construction.