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.

 

Hennessy's Index

Hennessy's Index

Trish Hennessy, author of the monthly Hennessy’s Index, is director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Ontario office. Read back issues of Hennessy’s Index at CCPA: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/index...