If you’re a contractor, supplier, or developer in Canada, staying on top of where the work is happening is critical. To give you that edge, SiteWire pulled the numbers from our permit warehouse for a periodic Canadian building permit leaderboard by city, covering permits issued in the 90 days ending July 10, 2026.
This isn’t about projections or forecasts. This is what was actually issued, straight from the municipal open data feeds we index. Toronto leads on volume, Vancouver punches far above its permit count on declared value, and approval speed varies by a factor of six between the fastest and slowest cities that publish timing data.
Toronto Leads with 7,853 Permits and $2.35 Billion in Declared Value
Toronto issued 7,853 building permits in the last 90 days, the most of any city we track. The permits that carry a declared value add up to $2.35 billion in construction work funnelled through one city’s permit office in three months.
For contractors and suppliers, that volume means consistent demand across framing, electrical, HVAC, and materials. The mix runs from minor renovations to significant new builds. The most common Toronto permit type in the window was “Building Permit Related(PS)” at 1,649 permits, with “Building Permit Related(MS)” close behind at 1,421 and interior alterations at 1,104. If your trade lives in those categories, Toronto is where the volume is.
One competitive-intelligence note from the same data: the most active contractor on Toronto permits pulled 10 permits in 90 days. Permit history shows you who is winning repeat work, which tells subcontractors who to network with and suppliers who is consistently buying.
The Leaderboard
Ranked by permits issued in the 90 days ending July 10, 2026. Declared value is shown only where the issuing city publishes project values; several cities (Montreal, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Brampton) publish few or none, so their totals are marked n/a rather than guessed.
| # | City | Permits (last 90 days) | Declared value (where published) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toronto | 7,853 | $2,352,214,584 |
| 2 | Montreal | 5,519 | n/a |
| 3 | Edmonton | 4,418 | $1,038,812,230 |
| 4 | Calgary | 3,881 | $1,488,075,849 |
| 5 | Winnipeg | 2,557 | n/a |
| 6 | Brampton | 1,706 | n/a |
| 7 | Ottawa | 1,150 | $585,066,607 |
| 8 | Quebec City | 1,131 | n/a |
| 9 | Airdrie | 1,069 | $126,125,026 |
| 10 | Vancouver | 1,000 | $1,617,976,564 |
Across these ten cities, that’s 30,284 permits in 90 days and over $7.2 billion in declared construction value where cities publish it. Vancouver stands out: one thousand permits carrying $1.6 billion in declared value, an average declared value nearly double Toronto’s, which reflects how much of Vancouver’s permit flow is large multi-unit work.
Approval Speed: Where Projects Get Greenlit Fastest (and Slowest)
Timing is everything in construction. Only some cities publish the elapsed time from application to issuance in their permit data, so this table covers exactly those cities, from the same 90-day window.
| # | City (fastest first) | Avg days to issue | Median days | Permits (last 90 days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thunder Bay | 17.7 | 5 | 102 |
| 2 | Kelowna | 31.6 | 17 | 88 |
| 3 | Montreal | 43.3 | 16 | 5,519 |
| 4 | Toronto | 56.3 | 28 | 7,853 |
| 5 | St. Catharines | 64.1 | 26 | 149 |
| 6 | Vancouver | 108.2 | 55 | 1,000 |
Thunder Bay turns permits around in under three weeks on average. Vancouver takes over three months. That gap matters twice: it sets how far ahead you can see work coming, and it decides how much lead time you get by monitoring permit applications instead of waiting for issuance. In slow cities like Vancouver, the application is your early warning; by the time the permit issues, the smart subs have already called.
What This Leaderboard Means for Your Business
- Targeted Sales: Focus your sales and marketing efforts on cities with permit volumes and project values that match your services.
- Resource Allocation: Understand where demand is highest to deploy crews, equipment, and inventory.
- Project Planning: Factor municipal approval speeds into your bids and client expectations.
- Competitive Intelligence: See which contractors are pulling repeat permits and where consistent work is flowing.
This level of detail from building permit data helps you refine your lead generation, so you chase the most relevant opportunities for your trade. We’ll keep refreshing these numbers so you always know where the work is in Canada.
Source: SiteWire permit warehouse, 3.1 million+ Canadian building permits indexed from municipal open data. Leaderboard covers permits issued in the 90 days ending July 10, 2026. Declared values are shown only where the issuing city publishes them, and not every permit carries a value.
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