Hard Numbers: Wildfires for Alberta, Canadians for defense spending, last supper for Jenny Craig, Meta-threat for Canadian publishers
24,000: At least 24,000 people in Alberta were forced to evacuate their homes by wildfires this week. Authorities counted as many as 88 fires burning at one point. This year has seen an unusually high number of wildfires, with more than 400 recorded so far.
64: Should Canada spend more on defense? A majority of Canadians say yes, with 64% in a new poll saying they want Ottawa to boost military outlays and meet the unofficial requirement that all NATO members spend 2% of GDP on defense. Canada is currently at just 1.4% and hasn’t hit the NATO mark since the 1980s.
323 million: The famous weight loss chain Jenny Craig has announced it will shutter all North American locations week after nearly half a century in business. The move leaves millions of folks without pre-made meals and diet coaching, and it sticks Canadian creditors with a $323 million vat of unpaid loans.
1.9 billion: Meta threatened to pull links to Canadian news outlets if a new bill forces the social media giant to pay those publishers for their content. Meta says its Facebook Feed has already generated 1.9 billion clicks for Canadian news outlets over the past year, amounting to $230 million in revenues for those companies.