March 5 , 2009

ICBA Commentary: Building Permits

(March 5, 2008 - VANCOUVER) The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) offered the following commentary on today's Statistics Canada release of the building permits survey for January 2009.

“With the economic trouble, it is inevitable that construction would slow down, but the downturn in the construction economy is more acute because we are coming down from never-before seen highs, which makes this adjustment more challenging,” said Philip Hochstein, President of the ICBA. “These numbers are in line with our recent survey that showed that 50 per cent of BC contractors expect work levels to decline this year, 38 per cent expect the volume of work to stay the same and 12 per cent expect work to increase.

“Infrastructure investment will help replace some job losses and help cushion the blow, but this highlights the need for increased infrastructure spending to kick in sooner rather than later,” he added. “The real success of government spending on infrastructure will be in how quickly the projects begin construction.”

“With costs moderating and tradespeople being more available, homeowners, developers and governments are wisely seeing that now is the right time to build or renovate," said Hochstein.

ICBA (www.icba.ca) represents family owned construction businesses across British Columbia.

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