According to a report Monday from Statistics Canada, capital expenditures in non-residential construction and machinery and equipment are expected to total $251.8 billion in 2015, down 4.9% from 2014.
Public sector capital spending is expected to decrease 0.2% and private sector capital expenditure is anticipated to fall by 7.0%, mainly as a result of lower spending in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
Capital expenditures in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector are expected to total $67.9 billion, 18.7% less than in 2014.
In 2015, capital expenditures on exploration and evaluation, which include oil and gas exploration drilling, geological, geophysical and other oil and gas exploration and evaluation costs as well as mineral exploration costs, are expected to fall 25.1% from 2014 to $6.8 billion.
Organizations in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector reported that capital expenditure in construction and machinery and equipment is expected to fall by $15.6 billion, or 18.7%, to $67.9 billion in 2015. The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas sector is still expected to be the largest capital spending sector, accounting for more than one-quarter of total capital expenditure.
Strong decreases in capital expenditures in non-residential construction and machinery and equipment were reported by a number of sectors. Capital expenditures by organizations in the health care and social assistance sector are anticipated to total $8.7 billion in 2015, down 14.2% from 2014. The hospital subsector is expected to account for 80.8% of the decrease.
Manufacturers intend to increase spending by 2.7% to $17.5 billion in 2015, in large part, due to increases in the petroleum and coal product manufacturing subsector in Alberta, and the machinery manufacturing subsector in Quebec.