According to Statistics Canada’s Investment in Building Construction data for September, third-quarter ICI investment in Ontario amounted to $4.47 billion, down 8.7 per cent over Q3 2020, but up slightly (+3.1 per cent) over Q2 2021.
The data reveals a 10.7 per cent decrease over Q3 2020 in industrial investment in the province, and a 2.7 per cent increase over Q2 2021.
Commercial investment was down by 11.9 per cent year-over-year, and down by 2.0 per cent quarter-over-quarter. Institutional investment in Q3 2021 was up over both Q3 2020 (+1.5 per cent) and Q2 2021 (+18.0 per cent), according to the data.
ICI investment in the third quarter increased year-over-year (Q3 2021 over Q3 2020) in four of Ontario’s sixteen metro areas. Kingston’s ICI investment rose by 18.2 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2020, while Greater Sudbury’s rose by 15.8 per cent.
Ottawa and Belleville saw slight year-over-year increases (+1.2 per cent and +0.9 per cent, respectively). The remaining twelve metro areas saw drop-offs in year-over-year third-quarter ICI investment: Barrie (-1.6 per cent), Hamilton (-2.9 per cent), Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (-4.8 per cent), Windsor (-5.8 per cent), London (-7.5 per cent), Toronto (-11.0 per cent), St. Catharines-Niagara (-17.6 per cent), Oshawa (-23.5 per cent), Guelph (-24.9 per cent), Thunder Bay (-25.3 per cent), Peterborough (-38.5 per cent) and Brantford (-54.5 per cent).
Looking at the quarter-over-quarter data (Q3 2021 over Q2 2021) the story is inverted, says Statistics Canada. Thirteen Ontario metro areas had increases in ICI investment compared to Q2, while only three saw declines.
Metro areas with quarter-over-quarter ICI investment growth were: Thunder Bay (+36.6 per cent), Belleville (+28.3 per cent), Windsor (+24.4), Barrie (+19.1 per cent), Peterborough (+15.9 per cent), Kingston (+14.0 per cent), Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (+12.1 per cent), Greater Sudbury (+11.2 per cent), Hamilton (+9.9 per cent), Oshawa (+9.0 per cent), London (+7.0 per cent), St. Catharines-Niagara (+7.0 per cent) and Guelph (+2.8 per cent). The three metro areas with declining ICI investment were: Toronto (-0.4 per cent), Ottawa (-11.2 per cent) and Brantford (-28.9 per cent).
