According to BTY Group's annual Market Intelligence Report, the construction industry in Canada is a "bright light amid global doom."

The report bases its view on the expectation that there will be diversification and strong investment in the transportation, energy, mining and healthcare fields. Activities in these sectors "will help keep construction workloads steady with low escalation in 2012," says the report.

BTY is a cost and project management consulting firm based in Toronto. It has been publishing its annual review of construction costs since 2003.

Joe Rekab, Group Managing Partner at BTY, said in a press release: "Even with lower than expected growth in the U.S., worries over European bailouts and slower growth in residential construction in most of the country, we expect reasonably healthy levels of activity across Canada.

"The story for 2012 is that strong energy, resource and infrastructure investment should balance a cooling housing market in almost every province, with the exception of B.C. and Alberta, both of which will see gains in the housing market over the previous year."

BTY also predicts:

• In Ontario, an ambitious horizontal and vertical infrastructure program will lead, but concerns over deficit spending could put some projects on hold.
• Oilsands investments of $24 billion in 2011 will fuel Alberta's industry, and drive Canada's strongest residential growth.
• New multi-billion-dollar mining projects and on-going energy, healthcare and transportation projects will keep Quebec busy.
• More than $10 billion in new potash projects will boost construction in Saskatchewan.
• BC will see both strong residential activity and increased private sector investment in non-residential construction. To see the full report, visit www.bty.com

First posted in Daily News, January 9^th 2012