Consumer Price Index
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) may be used to express a sum of money, established at a point in time in the past, in current dollars. The last published value from Statistics Canada was for August 2010. The value 117.2, entered for December 2010, was calculated on the assumption of a constant annual rate of inflation of 1.2% from August 2010 continuing to December 2010.
Using the values from the Canada CPI, the value of any sum established at any time since 1978 can be expressed in terms of current dollars. For example, decisions for the trilogy of cases which established an upper limit for awards for general damages set a ceiling of $100,000 in January 1978. The current CPI data series estimates the CPI for January 1978 at 35.1. Given a projected CPI value of 117.2 for December 2010, the approximately equivalent upper limit in December 2010 would then be estimated at about:
(117.2/35.1) x $100,000 = $333,903.
For your convenience, the CPI values for British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are also provided in .pdf format below.
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