Statistics Canada Reports II

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

I don't know the economics behind the plan in Saskatchewan, but in the case of Alberta, the dollars work for data centres by using natural gas for the electricity as it is cheaper than renewables, and also with natural gas it's easy to produce high amounts of electricity on demand and it's easy to scale.

Originally Posted by Changing City

They weren't comparing the level of investment to use solar and wind with battery storage to burning gas. They were comparing the cost of investing in renewable energy with the proposed investment in the existing coal fired electricity plants in Saskatchewan. It wasn't specifically about the data centre, which will obviously increase the demand for power, unless they had their own power generation (which isn't the case, as far as I can see).

The Saskatchewan deal is a bit different as it also involves the Saskatchewan government. It could be that the want the data centre to use coal as a way to expand that industry? I don't know why they would to be honest, as southern Saskatchewan has the best sunlight hours for solar power in Canada, and coal seems like a dying industry.

[Dalreg]

Originally Posted by The mayor

It must be nice to have your morning coffee and trash other parts of the country that you don’t like obviously or else you wouldn’t make a comment. The fact is these are major, economic developments, major whether you like it or not the the city is booming. There’s construction everywhere. Have you ever looked at the main Regina page. I’ve never seen you once betting on nice comment , 80% of Canada’s best farmland is around Regina Saskatchewan feeds the Hungary of the world
And yes, Regina has had 7800 jobs and they’re not in government. Just come here to start trouble and stir the pots. Nothing more nothing less. Enjoy your morning coffee and be happy that other places are doing well.

I know you are a shit stirrer yourself mate. Proud to be from Regina and all that. Not trashing the country at all calling you out on your claims.

[The mayor]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

I know you are a shit stirrer yourself mate. Proud to be from Regina and all that. Not trashing the country at all calling you out on your claims.

Who started it you did as always : have a coffee and go sleeps (@)
You stated that all the eight thousand jobs Regina had how does it bother you a shit stirrer want are you talking about a post about Regina jobs and you went wild claiming there all government jobs just let it go have a very strong, black, dark coffee, no cream and sugar and a really interesting trumpet to eat. Enjoy your day. You are so much loved and need major hugs

[Changing City]

Most of the housing starts data has been posted on the Statistics Canada website.

Here are the numbers for Q1 2026 for 5 of the biggest 6 CMAs (with Q1 2025 in brackets). No Calgary data.

Ottawa-Gatineau 2,989 (2,609)
Edmonton 3,401 (4,095)
Montreal 4,870 (5,327)
Toronto 4,889 (5,072)
Vancouver 6,706 (4,834)

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Most of the housing starts data has been posted on the Statistics Canada website.

Here are the numbers for Q1 2026 for 5 of the biggest 6 CMAs (with Q1 2025 in brackets). No Calgary data.

Ottawa-Gatineau 2,989 (2,609)
Edmonton 3,401 (4,095)
Montreal 4,870 (5,327)
Toronto 4,889 (5,072)
Vancouver 6,706 (4,834)

Found Calgary's numbers.

Vancouver 6,706 (4,834)
Calgary 5,005 (6,791)
Toronto 4,889 (5,072)
Montreal 4,870 (5,327)
Edmonton 3,401 (4,095)
Ottawa-Gatineau 2,989 (2,609)

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

Found Calgary's numbers.

Vancouver 6,706 (4,834)
Calgary 5,005 (6,791)
Toronto 4,889 (5,072)
Montreal 4,870 (5,327)
Edmonton 3,401 (4,095)
Ottawa-Gatineau 2,989 (2,609)

Thanks. According to this CMHC release, published on the 17th, Calgary was 6,271 in Q1 2025, so 5,005 is still a drop. (For some reason the Calgary numbers are still missing on the other CMHC data portal).

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Thanks. According to this CMHC release, published on the 17th, Calgary was 6,271 in Q1 2025, so 5,005 is still a drop. (For some reason the Calgary numbers are still missing on the other CMHC data portal).

This portal page usually has up to the date numbers.

As far as the drop, I don't think anyone claimed there wasn't a drop for YYC. After a couple of overheated years, I'm not surprised to see a drop, it's going to rise every year.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

This portal page usually has up to the date numbers.

As far as the drop, I don't think anyone claimed there wasn't a drop for YYC. After a couple of overheated years, I'm not surprised to see a drop, it's going to rise every year.

Thanks. That's the portal I used, but for some reason the Calgary March number was missing yesterday. It's there now.

I agree a drop wasn't unexpected. Calgary still had more housing starts than Toronto, like last year, which is wild. The level of increase in Vancouver was surprising, but 2025 was quite a bit down compared to 2023 and 2024.

Canada overall saw quite an increase this year compared to last year. Q1 saw 49,321 starts, compared to 45,427 in 2025. 27,437 of them were rentals, up from 22,667 last year. Condo starts were just over 10,000 in both years.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Thanks. That's the portal I used, but for some reason the Calgary March number was missing yesterday. It's there now.

I agree a drop wasn't unexpected. Calgary still had more housing starts than Toronto, like last year, which is wild. The level of increase in Vancouver was surprising, but 2025 was quite a bit down compared to 2023 and 2024.

Canada overall saw quite an increase this year compared to last year. Q1 saw 49,321 starts, compared to 45,427 in 2025. 27,437 of them were rentals, up from 22,667 last year. Condo starts were just over 10,000 in both years.

Gotcha, I thought maybe there was a previous debate on the Calgary numbers. I suspect Calgary will be the 4th busiest for housing starts this year after Van (1st), Tor (2nd) and Mtl (3rd), but won't be too far back of the pack. Vancouver after a down cycle year last year will have a big rebound this year.

[Chocolite]

Here's a non typical stat. For kicks I've gathered a list of cities with 2 or more highrises under construction. Not a surprise that Toronto and Vancouver are the most active. Surprising to me is that Montreal isn't very active for a city its size. I thought they were having a highrise boom, but it must have dropped off. Another surprise was Quebec city. A lot of highrises, granted they're all ugly suburban builds, but they're still highrises.


Toronto 188
Vancouver 68
Montreal 31
Quebec-Levis 27
Calgary 23
Hamilton 12
Ottawa-Gatineau 11
Halifax 10
Kitchener-Waterloo 8
Winnipeg 6
Kelowna 5
Victoria 4
Edmonton 3



Breakdown of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal's CMA
Toronto 143
Mississauga 15
Markham 10
Vaughan 7
Oakville 4
Pickering 4
Brampton 2
Newmarket 2
Richmond Hill 1

Vancouver 31
Burnaby 17
Surrey 8
Coquitlam 5
Richmond 4
New Westminster 3

Montreal 15
Laval 12
Longueil 2
Brossard 1
Terrebonne 1

[someone123]

I'm sure it's true of many cities but the Halifax number is far below the actual count. It's probably more like 20-30 in the metro area, maybe more with suburban projects around 12 floors.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'm sure it's true of many cities but the Halifax number is far below the actual count. It's probably more like 20-30 in the metro area, maybe more with suburban projects around 12 floors.

All cities will be off by a few (I can see a couple missing for Calgary), but most of the lists are fairly accurate. Hard to tell with Halifax as there are a number of threads that have the title U/C, but no pics to tell what stage it's at. Whether there is excavation and shoring or at the demolition stage, site prep type stage. Lots of projects will have demolition and site prep and then nothing.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

All cities will be off by a few (I can see a couple missing for Calgary), but most of the lists are fairly accurate. Halifax had a boatload of highrises on the go, but keep in mind a lot have finished up, and there haven't been many recent startups.

Nope. This is obviously incorrect if you follow construction update photos which I do. There are many more active projects and the number of new starts accelerated in recent months with many developments being 2-4 towers.

And we're not talking about missing a few projects, we're talking about being off by 2-3x, maybe more. Some of it could be due to the definition of what's "under construction" but no reasonable way of looking at it can get down to 10.

[Nite]

Originally Posted by Chocolite

Here's a non typical stat. For kicks I've gathered a list of cities with 2 or more highrises under construction. Not a surprise that Toronto and Vancouver are the most active. Surprising to me is that Montreal isn't very active for a city its size. I thought they were having a highrise boom, but it must have dropped off. Another surprise was Quebec city. A lot of highrises, granted they're all ugly suburban builds, but they're still highrises.


Toronto 188
Vancouver 68
Montreal 31
Quebec-Levis 27
Calgary 23
Hamilton 12
Ottawa-Gatineau 11
Halifax 10
Kitchener-Waterloo 8
Winnipeg 6
Kelowna 5
Victoria 4
Edmonton 3



Breakdown of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal's CMA
Toronto 143
Mississauga 15
Markham 10
Vaughan 7
Oakville 4
Pickering 4
Brampton 2
Newmarket 2
Richmond Hill 1

Vancouver 31
Burnaby 17
Surrey 8
Coquitlam 5
Richmond 4
New Westminster 3

Montreal 15
Laval 12
Longueil 2
Brossard 1
Terrebonne 1

Edmonton is what surprises me the most, a rapidly growing population with the most liberal housing policies in the country. But then again it could be these liberal housing policies which are spreading the supply away from highrises construction into "missing middle" structures.

[zoomer]

As someone (literally) mentioned above I think those numbers are off, so I wouldn't be surprised if Edmonton has a fair bit more, even Montreal proper at 15 seems way too low. Even little ol' Victoria, actually just downtown Victoria has 9 high rises currently under construction.

[MolsonExport]

The population clock is back to growth, but only about a third the rate of the peak moments of 2023-2024.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by zoomer

As someone (literally) mentioned above I think those numbers are off, so I wouldn't be surprised if Edmonton has a fair bit more, even Montreal proper at 15 seems way too low. Even little ol' Victoria, actually just downtown Victoria has 9 high rises currently under construction.

Nah, if to qualify for a highrise, the building needs to exceed 8 storeys, then I think it's accurate. The VAST majority of infill here is 8 storeys and less, so that 'missing middle' typology. Our market just is not conducive to high rise concrete construction right now - cheap rents and higher construction costs - which makes wood-frame structures of a maximum 8 storeys way more economically viable (we are seeing a lot of them going up all over the city).

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by someone123

Nope. This is obviously incorrect if you follow construction update photos which I do. There are many more active projects and the number of new starts accelerated in recent months with many developments being 2-4 towers.

And we're not talking about missing a few projects, we're talking about being off by 2-3x, maybe more. Some of it could be due to the definition of what's "under construction" but no reasonable way of looking at it can get down to 10.

Oh okay, that makes sense.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by Nite

Edmonton is what surprises me the most, a rapidly growing population with the most liberal housing policies in the country. But then again it could be these liberal housing policies which are spreading the supply away from highrises construction into "missing middle" structures.

Already answered by Harrison, but yeah, it's simply a case of ROI. Housing is cheaper in Edmonton, similar to Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, etc.. and thus makes it more challenging to build highrises.

[someone123]

I am not sure of the source but years ago these lists used to be pretty accurate. Lately with the construction boom in Canada they aren't. The diagrams and database on SSP are missing a lot of buildings. Partly a lack of volunteers I guess, and partly there's so much construction it's hard to keep track of.

There is some variation like whether excavation vs. footings counts vs. getting up to ground level counts as "under construction", etc. The reporting in Halifax is often a bit funny as the municipality or media outlets count the average elevation (not lowest) for building heights, often doesn't include penthouse in floor count, and often considers a tower to be separate from the podium (e.g., "15 storey tower plus penthouse and a 4 storey podium" -> actually 21 habitable floors).

I tend to think it makes sense to count excavation as under construction as it's a major investment a developer is unlikely to make unless they intend to proceed. Digging a giant 40 foot hole is not trivial.