Canada’s price index for commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing services recorded a modest increase in the second quarter of 2026. In the quarterly table published by Statistics Canada on 2 October, which uses 2020 as 100, the overall index rose to 116.9 in the second quarter from 116.2 in the first. A simple calculation from those two index levels implies a quarter-over-quarter increase of about 0.6%. The agency’s release did not announce a percentage change or explain a cause; it stated only that second-quarter data were available. The percentage change here is therefore an approximate comparison calculated from the published index levels.

The largest published subgroup, rental and leasing of construction, transportation, mining and forestry machinery and equipment, rose from 117.7 to 118.6; the simple quarterly change is about 0.8%. The other published group, which combines office with other commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing, increased from 110.4 to 110.6, or about 0.2%. These levels are index points measuring price movement relative to the 2020 average. They are not direct rental bills or industry revenues. Nor does the difference between subgroup movements by itself prove a shortage of particular equipment, stronger demand or cost pressure in a specific category.

A year-over-year comparison also puts the overall movement in context. The overall index was 114.3 in Q2 2025 and 116.9 in Q2 2026, implying an increase of about 2.3% from those two levels. The construction, transportation, mining and forestry subgroup rose from 115.5 to 118.6 over the same comparison, or about 2.7%. The office and other commercial and industrial equipment index increased from 109.2 to 110.6, about 1.3% year over year. These are approximate calculations from index levels rounded to one decimal place and should not be presented as more precise price changes. The index is published for Canada nationally, without provincial or regional detail.

The indicator, abbreviated CIMERLSPI, measures price changes in Canada’s commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing industry. The technical guide defines its target population as establishments primarily engaged in NAICS 5324 in 2020. These businesses generally supply capital or investment-type equipment to workplaces, such as construction machinery, manufacturing tools and specialized instruments; the index does not cover ordinary retail rentals or every cost of using equipment. The two published subgroups cover the largest NAICS 53241 construction, transportation, mining and forestry group, and a combined office and other machinery and equipment group. The guide says NAICS 53241 represents about 75% of total NAICS 5324 revenue. That share provides context for the index structure; it does not mean that 75% of rental transactions in 2026 were in that subgroup.

Price is defined as the transaction price for products rented or leased in each month, excluding sales taxes and additional fees. Respondents are asked to report monthly prices for up to three products they consider representative of their activities and to follow the same products over time, so the index aims to measure price movement at constant quality. A business that did not rent or lease products in the reference period may provide price estimates. When products are discontinued or replaced, direct comparisons may not be possible; the effect of non-comparable replacements is estimated. The index weights price changes by establishments’ revenue shares. The technical guide describes a longitudinal sample of about 500 establishments drawn from Statistics Canada’s Business Register and stratified by five-digit industry code and revenue size. Establishments with annual gross revenue of at least $100,000 are in scope; the largest are selected with certainty and the rest with probabilities proportional to revenue.

Seasonality is an important interpretive limit. Statistics Canada explicitly says the index is not seasonally adjusted. Rental activity may vary with the time of year, equipment operating schedules and contract structures, so a single-quarter increase should not automatically be read as a persistent trend. This makes it useful to place the quarterly calculation beside a year-over-year index comparison, although that comparison remains bounded by the industry coverage and fixed-weight methodology. The index is not general consumer-price inflation or the purchase price of machinery; it tracks rental and leasing service prices for the defined business group.

The agency notes that data for the previous quarter may be revised with each new release. According to the technical guide, revisions generally occur when late information arrives from an establishment that had not responded or when a respondent corrects earlier data. The sample and weight basket are updated every five years; when a new basket is introduced, historical estimates are linked to it using a linking factor. Statistics Canada could not collect data in the first two quarters of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and estimated those indexes using other benchmarking methods; it advises users to treat those observations with caution. The Q2 2026 table reports Canada-level indexes and remains subject to revisions to the preceding quarter. The approximately 0.6% Q2 movement is therefore a sector-level index signal for transaction prices excluding tax and extra fees, not a price paid by every business, a regional price, or a separate rate for each equipment type.