Permits are the earliest reliable signal of what will actually be built. Here is what Canada issued in June 2026, and how unevenly it landed across the country.
Headline figure
$14.9B
Total value of building permits issued in Canada in June 2026. Statistics Canada reports that “In June, the total value of building permits issued in Canada rebounded by $2.3 billion (+18.5%) to reach $14.9 billion” — Building permits, June 2026, released 12 August 2026 (Table 34-10-0292-01).
What the data says
Statistics Canada publishes the value of building permits monthly from Table 34-10-0292-01. The June 2026 edition, released on 12 August 2026, records a national rebound of $2.3 billion to $14.9 billion, with the non-residential sector contributing $1.8 billion of that and the residential sector $479.7 million.
A note on reading the release carefully. It states the month-over-month gain as +18.5% in its opening sentence, and in a later passage reports that “the total value of building permits issued in June rose 18.0% from the previous month and was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis”. Those are different series bases, not a contradiction — quote whichever one you use together with its sentence rather than as a bare percentage.
Statistics Canada publishes the provincial and territorial breakdown as a map accompanying the same release. Its text reads, in full: “In June, building permit values in Canada were up 18.5% compared with the previous month. Newfoundland and Labrador was down 2.6%, Prince Edward Island was up 10.3%, Nova Scotia was up 4.0%, New Brunswick was up 8.7%, Quebec was up 22.7%, Ontario was up 28.5%, Manitoba was up 13.5%, Saskatchewan was up 101.6%, Alberta was up 19.6%, British Columbia was down 9.5%, Yukon was down 63.4%, the Northwest Territories was down 44.7% and Nunavut was down 15.6%.”
| Province or territory | Change on the month |
|---|---|
| Saskatchewan | +101.6% |
| Ontario | +28.5% |
| Quebec | +22.7% |
| Alberta | +19.6% |
| Canada | +18.5% |
| Manitoba | +13.5% |
| Prince Edward Island | +10.3% |
| New Brunswick | +8.7% |
| Nova Scotia | +4.0% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | −2.6% |
| British Columbia | −9.5% |
| Nunavut | −15.6% |
| Northwest Territories | −44.7% |
| Yukon | −63.4% |
Source: Statistics Canada, Building permits, June 2026, released 12 August 2026, Table 34-10-0292-01; provincial figures as stated in the map accompanying that release. Ordered here by size of change; Statistics Canada lists them east to west.
The release names the components behind the provincial swings rather than leaving them to inference. On the non-residential side: “The gain in the institutional component was bolstered by Ontario (+$1.3 billion) and concentrated in the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), where there were newly approved building permits for a medical institution”. On the residential side: “The gain in the multi-unit component in June was driven by Quebec (+$201.3 million) and supported by Alberta (+$143.4 million) and Saskatchewan (+$61.4 million)”.
That is the practical caution for anyone using permit data to plan. A single institutional approval can move a province’s monthly total by more than a billion dollars, so a firm sizing its crew or its subcontractor bench off one month of permits is reading noise. The quarterly figure — $40.4 billion, up 3.7% — is the steadier read.
Permits lead starts, and starts lead work on the ground, so the value issued in a province is a forward indicator for the pipeline a contractor or builder there will be bidding on. Pair it with investment in building construction to see whether permitted intentions are converting into money actually spent, and with the building construction price indexes to understand what a dollar of that work now buys.
If you are looking at the supply side rather than the demand side, construction business openings and closures covers how many firms are entering and leaving the industry that has to build all this.
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