It’s construction, not resources like oil that keep B.C.’s economy moving. That’s at least the argument from city politicians after a near record-year for the total construction value of projects for 2016.
With a month left in the year, the city has handed out $679 million worth of building permits, which isn’t too far off of the $728 million issued by this time last year.
Last year proved to be a record for the city, handing out $879 million in permits. Burnaby has consistently over the last few years topped the $600-million mark in construction activity, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the mayor and council.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal suggested the role construction plays in B.C.’s economy is downplayed in favour of natural resource extraction. He specifically compared Trans Mountain pipeline’s expansion to the amount of money spent on construction in the Metro Vancouver area, noting Burnaby represents about 10 per cent of all the construction value in the region.
“When you look at what’s happening in Burnaby and aggregate it with the rest of the Metro region, I believe it’s like building two pipelines every year,” he said. “Why is $6.5 billion every 50 years so important and we’re doing $10 billion a year in construction.”
Dhaliwal also argued the construction industry creates local jobs for people who live and work in the community.
Mayor Derek Corrigan agreed and piled on, suggesting there hasn’t been enough attention paid to the number of jobs generated from the construction activity in Metro Vancouver. He also added there is a constant argument that B.C. is a resource-based economy, especially reliant on oil and gas, which he said isn’t true.
“We’re generating a huge amount of the economy right here in the Lower Mainland by the construction activity and the business activity that’s generated, and yet people are quite prepared to endanger all of that… in order to deliver oil to customers on the other side of the ocean. I don’t get it,” he said.
And Corrigan isn’t particularly worried the province’s 15 per cent foreign buyers’ tax introduced in the summer will slow the pace of construction down.
“I have my doubts that it’s having much impact. I think it initially may have cooled some purchasers… but the desirability of the Vancouver area is such that I don’t know that’s going to dissuade people, and certainly there’s enough market that’s not foreign buyers,” he said.
So far this year, the city has handed out 1,671 permits. Nearly a quarter of the overall number ($169 million) came in the month of November alone.
In all, $192 million, or 28 per cent, of the permits so far in 2016 went toward single-family construction, with another $308 million going toward multi-family construction.
The record for building permit values was $792 million, set in 2008.
In 2014, the city handed out $698 million in building permits, while in 2013, 2012 and 2011 issuing $674 million, $514 million and $615 million in permits, respectively.
