Statistics Canada said today that towns and cities issued $5.0 billion worth of permits in May, down 2.1% from April.

But the overall level in May was still 7% higher than the average monthly level in 2004, a record year.

Pans for commercial and industrial construction projects fell, and that dragged down the overall value of building permits that contractors took out, the government agency said.

Non-residential permits were down 5% to $1.8 billion.

Meanwhile, housing starts were stable in May. StatsCan said the value of housing permits slipped just 0.4% to $3.1 billion.