A number is never just a number -- Security and Insecurity

The Hennessy Index is a monthly listing of numbers, written by the CCPA's Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place in the world.

March 2011: Security/Insecurity

• 1.4 million
Number of Canadians officially unemployed in January 2011. (Source) 

• 1.2 million
Population size of the nation's capital, Ottawa. (Source) 

• 14.4 per cent
Canada's youth unemployment rate in January 2011 (age 15-24); nearly twice the national average. (Source) 

• Sidelined
Canada still has 335,800 more unemployed individuals than before the beginning of the recession. (Source)

• One out of five
Number of jobless Canadians who were unemployed for more than six months in January 2011; was one in 10 in January 2008. (Source) 

• 867,948
Number of Canadians who used food banks in March 2010; record high. (Source) 

• 90,000
Number of jobs Canadians could lose if government yanks stimulus funds in 2011/12. (Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Alternative Federal Budget 2011 forthcoming)

• $7 billion 

How much more, per year, the Harper government has budgeted for the Department of Defence since it came to power; a 47 per cent increase. (Source: Fiscal Reference Tables and Budget 2010)

• $5 billion
Estimated new additional annual costs of running provincial and federal jails by 2015/16 due to the latest Harper government crime law. (Source) 

• $220 billion
Total cost of Harper government tax cuts between 2006 and 2013/14. (Source) 

• $14 billion
Yearly cost of Harper government corporate tax cuts by 2013/14. (Source and source) 

• $11.5 billion
Predicted federal fiscal deficit in 2013/14. (Source) 

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative's Trish Hennessy has long been a fan of Harper Magazine's one-page list of eye-popping statistics, Harper's Index. Instead of wishing for a Canadian version to magically appear, she's created her own index -- a monthly listing of numbers about Canada and its place in the world. Hennessy's Index -- A number is never just a number -- comes out on the first of each month in rabble.ca.