Official figures have revealed that contractors and developers were pretty much bullish on Edmonton's economic recovery with building permits issued in February hitting nation-leading levels. However, the leader of a group which represents Alberta's builders has stressed that the rebound is still to reach his industry.

The total value of permits for the Edmonton census metropolitan area was $395.5 Million, as was reported by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, which is a 27% rise when compared to the permits issued in January and a whopping 137% hike from the figure posted for February of 2009.

Alberta, in all, posted $1.01 Billion worth of projects over the month of February, which is an increase of 86.7% when compared to February 2009, when values had managed to take a significant plunge and hit their lowest level recorded since September 2004.

Residential permits accounted for $690 Million worth of Alberta's total, while the non-residential total came out to be $319 Million.

"The strong monthly gain in residential permits comes at an interesting time and could be a sign that developers expect demand for new homes to remain strong throughout 2010, despite rising mortgage rates. In fact, residential permits in Edmonton reached their highest monthly level ever, continuing a trend of the last few months ... ", said ATB Financial economist Dan Sumner.