Construction industry booming in Ontario: government

173 sky-scrapers are being built in Toronto, the most in North America, according to Ontario government web site.

Figures released by the Ontario government paint a rosy picture of the province’s construction industry. Building permits issued in Ontario rose sharply in December, reaching $2.9 billion, the second highest level on record. Meanwhile, housing starts in January were at 77,300, up from 69,600 in December. Residential construction contributed over $41 billion to the Ontario economy in 2010. The entire construction industry represented 5.2 per cent of Ontario’s GDP that year.

The construction industry employs 442,500 people, and has gained 33,900 jobs over the last two years, the government says. A report from the Construction Sector Council forecasts that growth in construction employment will average 2.7 per cent annually from 2012 to 2017.

While public sector non-residential construction in Canada has been declining since 2009, public-sector non-residential construction has been on an opposite trajectory. Figures from the Daily Commercial News and Construction Record show that private-sector non-residential construction bottomed in 2009 and has been steadily rising since. In Ontario it grew by 9.0 per cent in 2011.