CanaData’s total Canada construction starts statistics remained down on a year-to-date basis in August 2008, versus the same period in 2007. Grand total starts (i.e., residential, plus ICI, plus engineering) for the country as a whole were -21% in both square footage and dollar volume terms. Year-to-date total non-residential building (ICI) starts were about the same (i.e., just as negative) in August as they were a month earlier. The smallest decline among the major ICI sub-categories has been for institutional work (-20% in square footage and -7% in dollars).

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