What construction costs are actually doing in southwestern Ontario

Nobody publishes a construction cost index for Brantford or Hamilton

Statistics Canada's Building Construction Price Index is the only authoritative, regularly updated measure of what it costs to build in Canada. It covers fifteen census metropolitan areas, and neither Hamilton nor Brantford is one of them. The nearest published market is London, roughly an hour west of Brantford and drawing on the same trade pool, the same suppliers and the same labour-market pressure.

So we publish it ourselves, quarter by quarter, with the caveat stated plainly: this is the London CMA, used as the closest available proxy for southwestern Ontario. It is not a Brantford index, because no such thing exists. It is the best public evidence available, and it is a great deal better than the guessing that usually fills this gap.

Residential costs in southwestern Ontario, quarter by quarter

As of 2026 Q2 the index sits at 113.5. Read against the 2023 base, residential construction inputs cost 13.5 percent more than they averaged in 2023, and 4.2 percent more than a year ago.

The finding that surprises people: Toronto has stopped, we have not

The received wisdom is that Toronto sets the pace and everywhere else follows at a discount. As of 2026 Q2, that is not what the data says:

• London CMA residential: +4.2 percent year over year
• Fifteen-CMA composite: +2.3 percent
• Toronto residential: +0.1 percent, effectively flat

Southwestern Ontario is running at nearly double the national metropolitan average and many times Toronto's rate. Measured from the 2023 base, London residential is up 13.5 percent against Toronto's 5.7 percent. If a cost article tells you renovation inflation has cooled because Toronto cooled, it is describing a market that is not yours.

"I get asked why a quote today is not the quote from two years ago, and now I can answer with a number instead of an apology. Thirteen and a half percent, from Statistics Canada, not from me. The honest move is to date every quote and price it at today's costs. The dishonest move is to quote at last year's numbers to win the job and then find the difference halfway through your kitchen."

Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.

Commercial is climbing twice as fast as residential

Non-residential construction in the London CMA reached 122.9 in 2026 Q2, up 8.2 percent year over year and 22.9 percent above the 2023 average, roughly double the residential rate. Business owners planning a fit-up or a storefront rebuild should treat an older budget as seriously out of date, and should build the schedule backward from a firm opening date rather than a hopeful one. That is the discipline behind how we run commercial projects.

Which trades actually moved, ranked

Lumber is not why your quote went up

This is the number that upends most kitchen-table conversations. Wood, plastics and composites sits at 100.9: nine tenths of one percent above its 2023 average, and up just 1.9 percent over the past year. Framing lumber, the material homeowners most associate with construction inflation, has gone essentially nowhere for three years.

The pressure is everywhere else, and it clusters in a revealing way:

• Concrete, up 23.7 percent since 2023, the single largest mover, which is why foundation, footing and slab work drives basement and addition budgets harder than any finish decision
• Mechanical trades: plumbing up 19.3 percent and HVAC up 18.0 percent since 2023, both still climbing above 7 percent a year, the fastest-accelerating category on the board
• Masonry up 19.9 percent and demolition up 19.8 percent, the latter rising fastest of all at 10.9 percent year over year
• Electrical up only 7.9 percent since 2023, well below the composite

The pattern is clear: the categories carrying skilled labour and heavy material, concrete, masonry, mechanical and demolition, are where the money went. The commodity everyone watches sat still. That is why gutting an older house has inflated faster than refreshing a newer one, and why per-square-foot averages need reading alongside what the project actually involves.

What this means for the quote in your hand

• Old quotes are stale, not negotiable. A residential quote from 2023 is roughly 13.5 percent behind current input costs. A contractor honouring it exactly is either absorbing the difference or planning to find it somewhere else.
• Estimates carry a legal cap. Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002, section 10(1), a supplier cannot charge more than 10 per cent above a written estimate without your agreement. That protection is real, and it is precisely why a written estimate should be priced at today's costs rather than optimistically low.
• Scope changes are the honest mechanism for genuine mid-project change, documented and signed before the work happens, per the change-order rules. Cost inflation is not a change order. It is a reason to date your quote.

Budgeting a specific project? The category ranges live in the sourced category ranges, and additions have their own budget breakdown.

How current this page is

Statistics Canada releases the Building Construction Price Index quarterly. The figures above are the 2026 Q2 release, the most recent published, retrieved directly from the StatCan data service on August 3, 2026. We refresh this page each quarter rather than leaving a stale number to age quietly, which is the fate of most cost articles written on this subject.