If there's a housing downturn in the United States, someone forgot to tell Canadian builders. It looks to be a busy fall season in the construction industry, as contractors took out $6.3 billion worth of building permits in August, up 1.4 per cent from $6.2 billion July, according to figures released by Statistics Canada yesterday.
This is the fourth-consecutive month that permits have gone above the $6 billion mark since the one-month record of $6.9 billion was set in June. The standout nationally was Saskatoon, which has already broken an annual record in the first eight months of the year, surpassing the previous annual record of $421 million in 2006.
