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.
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