Canada's total construction starts in the first quarter of 2009 were sharply lower than in the same period of last year. Total starts are comprised of the residential, non-residential building and engineering type-of-structure categories.

Alberta (-50.4%), Ontario (-32.1%) and British Columbia (-28.3%) were the provinces with the steepest drops in dollar volumes of starts. Alberta
(-71.3%) had a particularly sharp decline in overall square footage.

Click here to link with a story on first-quarter non-residential starts in Canada by type of structure and region.