Canada’s pool industry grows for third straight year

According to Environment and Natural Resources Canada, the country faced a frigid winter with tons of snow, while the summer was filled with lots of rain with the occasional heat wave. Although spring and fall were short-lived, these seasons packed a lot of punch with respect to the weather extremes that occurred.

Similar to the almost non-existent seasonal transitions experienced in 2018, last year was much the same; however, this time, when summer finally arrived, it did not pack much heat. That said, it was the country’s 23^rd “not-cold” year in a row, but it was not as warm as what was experienced in much of the past 10 years. For millions of Canadians, it was not that 2019 was so cold—it just was not hot. What did this mean for the number of pool installations in 2019? Despite temperatures across Canada being slightly below average—thanks to an extremely cold February—pool permits still increased year-over-year during the first five months of 2019. In fact, this streak lasted for six months when taking into consideration the increase in permits in December 2018. This was promising for the industry seeing as though these permits were recorded during the winter and spring. This may come as a surprise since many pool companies go into hibernation during the off-season, while a good start to the spring is generally a positive sign for builders as they gear up for the summer.

That said, although permits increased year-over-year in May, the hot weather that usually coincides with June, July, and August was void and it became a wet, soggy summer without any sustained heat. As a likely result, permits increased in only one of these three months last year. Coincidentally, the consumer confidence index decreased month-over-month in June, rose in July (the same month permits increased), and fell again in August. Needless to say, between July 2018 and July 2019 pool permits decreased year-over-year only twice within these 13 months. However, when comparing the two years more systematically, the first three quarters of 2019 were up 7.3 per cent, 7.9 per cent, and 1.7 per cent, respectively. The final quarter was down year-over-year by 14.7 per cent.

When breaking up last season into three categories: start of year/early spring (January to April); mid-spring/late summer (May to August); and fall/winter (September to December), pool permit registrations were only down in the last category. They increased by 18.3 per cent in the first category and 2.1 per cent in the second.

Overall, Statistics Canada reported 12,685 permits were issued in 2019, representing 461 more than the year prior. Permit registrations in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) also increased year-over-year by 5.4 per cent, representing 477 more permits than in 2018.