· Building permits
Peterborough’s May permit surge, read against a small prior-year base
Year-over-year permit value jumped about 1,653% in May 2026 versus May 2025. Acceleration rankings require a prior-year base of at least $5M so thin bases stay visible.
By OpenStats data desk · Editorial standards
Peterborough leads the May 2026 acceleration table with roughly +1,653% year-over-year permit value ($269M in May 2026 vs about $15M in May 2025). Large percentage moves often mean a thin prior base plus one or two large filings. OpenStats publishes the dollar amounts beside the percentage so readers can judge scale. Peterborough’s May 2026 total alone exceeded Ottawa’s prior-year May base ($180M) by a wide margin on a single month comparison, which shows how concentrated value can be.
Acceleration peers
Other May climbers with a prior-year base of at least $5M included Chilliwack (+324%), Kingston (+236%), Kamloops (+230%), Thunder Bay (+157%), and Ottawa (+121%). These are value changes, not permit-count changes. A few high-value permits can move the percentage more than a stack of small residential filings.
| City | May 2026 value | May 2025 value | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peterborough | $269M | $15M | +1,653% |
| Chilliwack | $62M | $15M | +324% |
| Kingston | $128M | $38M | +236% |
| Kamloops | $49M | $15M | +230% |
| Thunder Bay | $42M | $16M | +157% |
| Ottawa | $399M | $180M | +121% |
Kingston’s +236% ($128M vs $38M) and Ottawa’s +121% ($399M vs $180M) show acceleration on larger bases than Peterborough’s $15M May 2025 floor. Chilliwack, Kamloops, and Thunder Bay share the same $15M-$16M prior-year band as Peterborough, which makes their triple-digit percentages more comparable in scale, though still far below Peterborough’s headline ratio. Ottawa’s $399M May 2026 total was the largest absolute dollar figure in the acceleration set even though its percentage ranked below Peterborough.
Why the prior-base rule exists
OpenStats requires at least $5M in prior-year May value before a city appears on the Pulse acceleration leaderboard. Without that floor, a move from $1M to $20M would produce a 1,900% headline dominated by statistical noise. Peterborough cleared the gate at $15M and still posted a extreme ratio because the current month jumped to $269M. Readers should open Peterborough’s city page on the permits atlas to see permit counts and project mix for May 2026.
National context keeps the surge in proportion. May 2026 direct-tier national permit value was about $9.5B. Peterborough’s $269M month was material for a mid-size city but small relative to Toronto’s $1.99B May total. The prairie permit shift story on this desk covers Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg for readers who want a different regional lens on the same Pulse month.
How OpenStats ranks momentum
The permit momentum ranking and the Pulse acceleration list share the same live-source and prior-base rules. Read the percentage with the dollars. A +1,653% label without $269M and $15M beside it invites misinterpretation. For the full national context, open the May 2026 Construction Pulse. Method details sit in how OpenStats reads StatCan permits. Hometown charts under Peterborough plot permit value alongside other owned lists where coverage exists. Compare Peterborough’s May count and value on the permits atlas to Kingston’s +236% month ($128M vs $38M) when you write about Ontario acceleration outside the GTA. Chilliwack and Kamloops show similar prior-year floors ($15M) with lower May 2026 totals ($62M and $49M), which keeps their percentages triple-digit without reaching Peterborough’s dollar scale.
Construction contractors and municipal planners often watch permit value because it leads visible crane activity by several months. A single institutional permit can dominate a May row without changing long-run housing start trends. OpenStats keeps value and count together on Pulse city tables so readers can spot that pattern. When Peterborough’s May 2026 row updates after a StatCan revision, the atlas city page and Pulse footnote will reflect the revision on the next pipeline run. Thunder Bay’s +157% ($42M vs $16M) and Ottawa’s +121% ($399M vs $180M) round out the published acceleration set for May 2026 with the prior-base gate applied. Each row in that set cleared at least $5M in May 2025 value before the percentage was computed, which is why small towns with one-off spikes stay off the leaderboard even when their raw ratio looks dramatic on a city page. National direct-tier May value near $9.5B frames Peterborough’s $269M as a large local month that still represents a small slice of the Canada total built from live StatCan rows only. Kingston at $128M May 2026 on a $38M prior base shows how a mid-size Ontario city can post triple-digit acceleration without reaching Peterborough’s ratio or Ottawa’s $399M absolute May total.