The Saskatoon and Region Home Builders’ Association says 2019 numbers are showing one of the toughest years in recent memory for home builders. The SRHBA released its New Housing Market Analysis for the third quarter of 2019. CEO, Chris Guerette says that there have been 454 less housing starts compared to 2018. She adds 2018 was even lower compared to year before. Guerette says there are number of factors as to why there are lower housing starts and building permits. “The top of mind ones that we have are the federal government’s stress test on mortgages, uh, that means that there are less people in the market now who can buy a home and also PST on construction.” Guerette also points to other reason that have impacted the industry, ones that not everyone may think about, like the crown strikes. “Even though that it almost lasted three weeks or 17 days, that was 17 days were our industry was under pressure, not being able to get hook ups, uh, delays and impacting the cost of construction.” A small uptick is forecast in residential construction in 2020, although Guerette says it’s hard to predict what the uptick will be, saying it depends on whether the federal government will build pipelines and create jobs.