Saskatchewan bucked the trend in October and saw the value of building permits increase by 13.8 per cent. That was led mostly by the residential sector with the value up nearly 23 per cent. Nationally the value dropped 14.6 per cent. Six provinces registered declines.

It was a different story when comparing to the same month last year when, in that case, the numbers were off 3.3 per cent nationally and off 16.5 per cent in Saskatchewan. The biggest hit was to the non-residential side here with a drop of 46.8 per cent. The total value of building permits in Saskatchewan in October was about $116 million.