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Altus 2026 Canadian Cost Guide
Over the past two years, construction costs across Canada settled at a new baseline following a period of sharp inflation and supply chain disruption, but stability hasn't meant certainty.
The outlook heading into 2026 is cautiously optimistic, with optimism building toward 2027. Stabilizing interest rates and gradually improving financing conditions are expected to support a measured recovery in private-sector activity, and public-sector infrastructure and institutional investment will remain a primary driver in many regions. But cost dynamics are increasingly shaped by structural factors like: labour availability, regulatory complexity, trade policy, and geopolitical conditions, rather than traditional escalation drivers alone. These forces will play an increasingly important role in determining project viability and pricing across the Canadian market through 2026 and beyond.
What’s inside
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Private sector development costs
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Public sector development costs
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Infrastructure construction costs
Finding Your Decarbonization Pathway
Across the commercial real estate sector, many owners have already taken the important first step in their decarbonization journey: completing a carbon pathway study. These studies provide a clear, data-driven roadmap for transitioning building systems toward lower carbon intensity over time. Yet too often, these reports risk becoming little more than office adornments — sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, rather than driving real investment. The critical question is not whether to develop a pathway, but how to follow it.
In Ottawa, the primary barrier to moving from strategy to implementation is often financial. Lower-carbon technical solutions can carry a capital cost premium relative to conventional like-for-like equipment replacements, and electrification pathways may introduce upward pressure on operating costs where electricity pricing exceeds that of natural gas. As a result, even well-developed carbon pathways can stall at the transition from planning to execution. Overcoming this challenge requires a structured approach — one that combines incentive optimization, careful sequencing of efficiency and electrification measures, and thoughtful financial engineering to ensure projects are not only environmentally effective, but economically attractive. (...)
Economic Impact Assessment
If the City’s annual economic impacts were extended over the longer-term, and given potential future expansion of Ottawa’s commercial sectors, the total impact of the City’s commercial real estate industry would be increasingly significant. A simple extrapolation of the $2.6 billion over the past decade yields an order of magnitude of some $26 billion in impact to the City of Ottawa over this period. As such, the City’s business leaders and government officials need to clearly understand the industry’s impact and effectively engage with the local commercial real estate community, to ensure that appropriate decisions are made to effectively support and meet the needs of this very important industry. Read the summary of this unique study conducted by Deloitte in cooperation with BOMA Ottawa.