Heavy spending on office buildings in Alberta and British Columbia pushed investment in commercial steel building construction to a record high in the first three months of 2007, according to the Globe and Mail.

Statistics Canada reports that first-quarter investment hit $9.4-billion, up 3.3 percent from the fourth quarter, and marking the 16th straight quarterly increase.

Investment increased in all three components:

- The commercial sector rose 5 percent to $5.6 billion.
- The institutional sector was up 1.3 per cent to $2.3 billion
- The industrial sector edged up 0.2 per cent to $1.4-billion.

Provincially, by far the biggest first-quarter dollar increase occurred in Alberta, where investment rose 11.8 percent to $2.1 billion, marking the 12th straight quarterly gain. British Columbia came in a distant second with a 5.7 percent rise to $1.4 billion.

Meanwhile, demand for steel buildings was not as high in Nova Scotia, which posted the biggest construction drop after registering strong growth in the previous two quarters.

Western Canada's dynamic economy continued to spark the non-residential sector, along with a strong labor market, strong consumer demand for durable goods and declining vacancy rates in large urban centres, which provided added incentive for office building construction.