The value of building permits in March rose on a monthly basis across Canada as well as in Alberta and in Calgary, according to Statistics Canada.

The federal agency reported Wednesday that building permits during the month i ncreased by 20 per cent from February in the Calgary census metropolitan area to $236.5 million.

In Alberta, the monthly increase was 34.1 per cent to $696.5 million while the rise nationally was 23.5 per cent to $4.5 billion. In the province, the building permit increase was 30.5 per cent in the residential construction sector to $309.3 million and 37.2 per cent in the non-residential sector to $387.2 million.

After sliding steadily for most of the past year, building permits in Alberta gained momentum in March, said Todd Hirsch, senior economist with ATB Financial in Calgary.

“Despite the reasonably strong showing in March, the value of construction permits issued is still down by about a third from where it was in March of 2008,” said Hirsch.

“Even with the turnaround in building permits, it’s too soon to call the recession over.”
However, Hirsch said the figures add to the growing number of “green shoots” in the economy.

“It’s encouraging to see economic indicators rising, rather than falling,” said Hirsch.

For March, the biggest projects in Calgary for building permit value were the South Health Campus Project at $30.2 million, the Mount Royal College Centre for Continuous Learning at $17.8 million, the Science and Technology Wing at MRC at $17.6 million and the Wal-Mart Supercentre at Deerfoot Meadows at nearly $11 million.

While the value of building permits has increased at the municipal and provincial levels from the previous month, they are down compared with a year ago when they were $333.2 million in the Calgary region and just over $1 billion in Alberta for March 2008.

Nationally, the monthly increase was the first one following five consecutive declines, said Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist with TD Securities.

“However, when one looks at the actual level of the value of permits, the number is not even back to the level posted in December 2008,” she said.