Investment in Non-residential Building Construction

Detailed information for first quarter 2011

The investment in non-residential building construction represents the spending value for enterprises and governments, for industrial, commercial and institutional buildings.

Data release - April 15, 2011; May 31, 2011 (revised)

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The investment data for non-residential building construction gives a detailed statistical image of this activity in Canada, in the provinces and territories, and for the census metropolitan areas (CMA). The non-residential building construction excludes expenditure on residential construction and engineering work (bridges, roads, electrical dams, etc.).

The statistics are used by a wide range of economists and analysts from the public and private sectors.

Reference period: Quarterly

Collection period: During the month following the reference period

Subjects

• Construction
• Non-residential building construction

Data sources and methodology

Target population

All investment in non-residential building as defined by the Capital and Repair Expenditure Survey (record number 2803) on type of asset, grouped by commercial, industrial and institutional components.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are collected from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

Investment in Non-residential Building Construction is based on the Building Permits Survey of Canadian municipalities (record number 2802). Also, data from the Capital and Repair Expenditures, Actual, Preliminary Actual and Intentions (record number 2803) are used as a complementary data source to create this investment series. The data regarding Investment in Non-residential Building Construction also takes into account benchmark investment values in non-residential building construction of the National Income and Expenditure Accounts (record number 1901).

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

Investment in Non-residential Building Construction is based on the Building Permits Survey of Canadian municipalities, which collects information on construction intentions. Work put in place patterns are assigned to each type of structure (industrial, commercial and institutional). These work put in place patterns are used to distribute the value of building permits according to project length. These patterns differ according to the value of the construction project as a project worth several million dollars will usually take more time to complete than a project of some hundred thousand dollars. Data from the Survey of Capital and Repair Expenditures are used as a complementary data source to create this investment series. Data from this survey are use as benchmark for construction type of asset by provinces. Data on investment building construction from the National Wealth and Capital Stock Section from Investment and Capital Stock Division are also use as a benchmark. The data regarding Investment in Non-residential Building Construction also takes into account benchmark investment values in non-residential building construction of the National Income and Expenditure Accounts that are published quarterly. This benchmark is required because building permits do not include some supplementary additional costs such as architecture costs, legal fees. Also, building permits do not take into account changes in construction (change which may occur after the project has begun).

Quality evaluation

The investments in non-residential building construction are an extension of the survey information from building permits. For an intention to build in a given month, we assume that the expenditures will start the following month, accordingly to a work put in place pattern related to the type of construction and the size of the project. Also, survey information on Capital and Repair Expenditures, Actual, Preliminary Actual and Intentions (record number 2803) can be used as a source for complimentary data, allowing for modification, if needed, of project values and duration.

The quality of investment in non-residential building construction and its components (commercial, industrial and institutional) is evaluated by checking the consistency of these data with other sources. An interpretative analysis is also conducted.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Estimates for each quarter are revised when those for subsequent quarters of the same year are published. On an annual basis, when the first quarter is released, revisions are made back four years in accordance to the National Account revision policy. Usually, once every ten years an historical revision is carried out.

Since January 2007, seasonal adjustment has been performed by the X12-ARIMA method. However, the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasonally adjusted data have been revised with X12-ARIMA. Seasonally adjusted data for the total investment in non-residential building are obtained indirectly, i.e., by adding up their seasonally adjusted components. These components are the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and other regions at the provincial level for each category of non residential building -- industrial, commercial and institutional. Some series contain no apparent seasonality, and in these cases, unadjusted values have been tabulated and aggregated to the adjusted values of the other series.

Data accuracy

No direct measures of the margin of error in the estimates can be calculated. The quality of the estimates can be inferred from analysis of revisions and from an assessment of the data sources and methodology used in the preparation of the estimates.