Paul Dewar and New Democrats will strengthen Canada’s home-grown film and television production. We will:

Ensure Canadian television and telecommunications networks remain Canadian-owned by maintaining effective regulations on foreign ownership.

Refocus the mandate of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to promote and protect Canadian cultural industries, and transfer mandates that conflict with this objective to other agencies.

Provide sustained funding for the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada, and enhance federal film incentives to encourage film and television production.

Establish targets and a strategy to expand screening and distribution of domestic films in Canada.

Reverse efforts to legislate censorship, as the Harper Conservatives snuck into bill C-10. If passed, this bill would arbitrarily restrict and censor publicly-supported artistic works.

End the federal government’s double-dipping, by excluding provincial tax credit increases from the federal government’s calculation of film support payments.

Expand the federal tax credit to include the cost of post-production.

Require clear, binding and enforced performance standards for broadcasters – including a significant and permanent increase in the production and broadcast of Canadian drama – backed by broadcast, cable and satellite license requirements.

READ Paul Dewar's report based on his community consultations: Arts and Minds

To invest in our shared cultural heritage, Paul Dewar and New Democrats will:

Restore arts funding arbitrarily cut by the Harper Conservatives. Increase public funding for the Canada Council for the Arts to better support artists and ensure we can produce high quality made-in-Canada shows for everyday Canadians to enjoy.

Invest in a pan-Canadian broadband strategy to bring high-speed internet to more communities in Canada.

Implement a system of tax averaging to provide fair and equitable treatment for Canadian artists and cultural workers.

Implement "net neutrality" to protect everyday Canadians’ right to freely access the internet content of their choice at a flat rate and with clear and transparent rules. We will end price gouging and "net throttling", preventing a two-tiered internet in Canada.

Develop an aggressive pan-Canadian strategy for funding, supporting and preserving Canadian museums, historic buildings and heritage lighthouses.

Strengthen public broadcasting and provide stable long-term funding for the CBC, Radio Canada and other public broadcasters. We will strengthen the ability of CBC and Radio Canada to deliver superior regional programming and new internet-based media services.

Reform the role and structure of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), including enhancement of the role of the CRTC in Montreal so that it better reflects the cultural and linguistic reality of programming for Quebec and the francophone community.

Develop a digital on-line culture service to give ordinary Canadians expanded access to Canadian content.

Increase career transition resources for artists.

Protect children in the arts with minimum standards and trust fund rules for income earned by child performers.

Ensure that new copyright reform legislation fairly addresses compensation for artistic creators and includes proper input from all affected stakeholders including: arts/artist groups, educators, software innovators, consumer groups and ordinary Canadians.

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Pual Dewar and New Democrats believe in:

• The right of all Canadians to have universal access to high-quality public health care that is transferable between provinces and territories
• Fighting the privatization of public health care services, including through the use of existing mechanisms within the Canada Health Act
• Increasing health care transfers to the provinces and territories
• Providing incentives to recruit and train more health professionals, especially doctors and nurses
• Reducing costs by providing funding for provincial and territorial pharmacare programs, coordinating the bulk purchase of pharmaceutical drugs, and encouraging the use of less expensive generic drugs
• Investing in not-for-profit home care for seniors and people with disabilities
• Promoting healthy living, physical activity, and reduced tobacco use
• Adopting a harm reduction approach to substance abuse and permitting the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes
• Protecting the health and safety of sex-trade workers
• Working with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to address their specific health care challenges
• Establishing a comprehensive policy on reproductive health
• Working with all relevant authorities and governments to set up coordinated emergency plans in case of natural disaster, terrorism or other emergency
• Investing in public health initiatives to deal with pandemics, product and food security, and drinking water
• Working towards the establishment of a Canadian Health Covenant or patient’s bill of rights; and
• Working towards the establishment of a national healthcare council to ensure the Canada Health Act is enforced and the range of services extended to include home care, palliative care and prescription drugs.

New Democrat MP Paul Dewar tabled a bill that ensures fairness and respect for thousands of foreign-trained professionals in Canada. Dewar also invited the government to adopt the ideas in his bill so that foreign-trained professionals are integrated into the Canadian labour market and contribute their knowledge to our economy.

Read more: Foreign Credentials

Paul Dewar believes in:

• Supporting social and cooperative housing, in cooperation with all levels of government
• Adopting specific strategies to address homelessness, with special attention to the needs of Aboriginal peoples
• Assisting low-income households to improve household energy efficiency; and
• Ensuring accessibility standards for all forms of disability are met in social housing.

Decisions made by the National Capital Commission have a significant impact on our community. Paul maintains a close working relationship with the Commission to ensure that it takes our community’s voice into account.

Read more: Working with the NCC

In our community:

Preserving the Ottawa River:

• As a follow up to his parliamentary motion calling on the government to protect and preserve the Ottawa River, Paul released a comprehensive Action Plan for federal action;
• Worked with the NCC to preserve the meadow habitat on the shores of Ottawa River;
• Successfully pressured the Minister of Environment to support the designation of the Ottawa River as a national heritage river – first step in gaining federal attention for our source of drinking water;
• Continued the pressure on the government for strong environmental regulations, consistent enforcement of those regulations and investment in our city infrastructure in light of the incident at the Petrie Island Beach.

Protecting the Gatineau Park:

• Paul reintroduced his private member’s bill C-311 and launched a community campaign to give the park the same protections as a national park.
• Government adopted certain aspects of Paul's bill. For the first time the park's boundaries will be in legislation, its ecological integrity will be protected and parliament will have oversight on any change to the park.

• C-497 to ban use of bisphenol A: Adopted by government.
• C-510 to improve food labeling practices
• C-514 to regulate the bottled water industry
• C-570 to improving labeling practices with regards to the amount of salt in processed food

Building a Clean and Sustainable Canada 

A living biosphere and a sustainable environment for future generations are public necessities that require collective action.

Tackling climate change requires incentives for individuals, tough benchmarks for industry and leadership from the federal government.

Future generations are counting on action today. Canadians cannot afford to let economic and financial crises become reasons for inaction on global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental imperatives.

New Democrats reject the claim of a fundamental contradiction between environmental health and economic growth. Developing green energy industries is an opportunity for a dynamic new era of job creation, building a competitive advantage for Canada in environmental technologies and practices, which in turn help foster innovations in manufacturing.

Reshaping energy policy for the 21st century means moving away from fossil-fuel dependence toward a green energy future by investing in solar, wind, wave, and geothermal sources, working with provinces and territories to share clean energy; and ensuring energy conservation in transportation and building methods.

A New Democrat government will make Canada an environmental leader on the world stage by honouring treaty obligations, incorporating strong environmental standards in trade agreements and ensuring Canadian companies operating abroad will be held to standards and practices that reduce their footprint and leave local ecosystems in good health.

Protecting Nature and Our Ecosystems

• Protecting the environment as a common good by creating a legal framework to ensure that people have the right to live in a healthy environment with access to natural spaces
• Protecting and restoring ecosystems as central to all social and economic planning
• Reducing and eliminating highly toxic substances, especially those threatening life and habitat
• Protecting our supplies of fresh water by excluding it from all international trade agreements, privatization and deregulation
• Strengthening laws to protect biodiversity and threatened species; and
• Protecting and developing our national parks and designating new parks.

Climate Change

• Establishing binding targets and clear standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions
• Creating a revenue-generating carbon market to ensure industry reduces greenhouse gas emissions to targets set by government; and
• Imposing strict energy efficiency and emissions standards for motor vehicles, appliances, and buildings.

Energy

• Promoting clean, renewable energy to mitigate the negative effect of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels
• Investing in research and development to create new sources of alternative energy and develop incentives to encourage their use
• Promoting coordination between provinces and territories to share clean energy sources and ensure better energy security, including, where appropriate, an east-west energy grid
• Rescinding tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel industries, while protecting workers, communities, and the surrounding environment
• Halting nuclear expansion and upgrading the safety and security of current nuclear energy and waste management facilities
• Developing strong standards and incentives for energy conservation and creating public awareness about its importance; and
• Working with all levels of government to achieve large-scale energy efficiency, especially through major retrofit programs.

Towards a Green and Sustainable Economy

• Reviewing all economic decisions to assess their environmental impact
• Establishing a major research and development fund for green technologies
• Including environment sustainability in corporate social responsibility codes
• Consulting with communities on the development of local sustainability initiatives; and
• Investing in the development of “green cars”.
• Directing infrastructure stimulus spending in a strategic way that focuses on public transit, retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency and following urban design models to make our communities more energy efficient.

Showing Green Leadership to the World

• Taking leadership internationally to prevent environmental damage to the planet and implement environmentally sustainable practices worldwide
• Adhering to international agreements to reverse climate change, including those with binding regulations; and
• Demanding environmental standards in all trade agreements to which Canada is a signatory.

Paul Dewar and New Democrats believe in:

• Maintaining the universality of Old Age Security (OAS) and increasing funding for the Guaranteed Section 3 - Investing in a Canada Where No One is Left Behind 9 Income Supplement (GIS)
• Ensuring automatic eligibility for OAS and GIS recipients to ensure seniors receive the benefits to which they are entitled
• Mandating the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board to invest a portion of their assets in developing Canadian businesses and in socially responsible enterprise
• Ensuring workers and retirees participate on private pension management boards; and
• Creating an ombudsman for seniors.

To address the crucial needs of Canadian women, Paul Dewar and the New Democrats will:

Improve fairness for women at work:

• Implement full pay equity in the federal public service, and strengthen pay equity provisions in the Canada Labour Code for workers in federal jurisdiction covered by the Code and called for by the Pay Equity Task Force.
• Reintroduce a minimum wage, initially set at $10 per hour, and indexed to inflation.
• Increase access to Employment Insurance for women, and improve parental and maternity benefits.
• Institute a national child care program.

Help stop violence against women:

• Restore funds cut by Liberal governments throughout the 1990s for shelters and transition houses for women who are victims of domestic violence.
• Support native women’s efforts to develop healing centres and educational and training opportunities, including those that target the root causes of violence and violence directed at sex trade workers.
• Build more affordable housing to assist women trying to escape violence.
• Re-institute the annual consultation between the Department of Justice and women’s groups to monitor progress on ending violence against women, and progress on improving women’s access to the justice system and legal services.

Empower Status of Women Canada and other appropriate federal agencies to work to implement the recommendations of the report on Canada by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Support Stephen Lewis’ call for international action on women’s equality. Work for the creation of a UN Women’s Agency to ensure that women’s voices and concerns are represented at the highest levels of the international community.

Reaffirm women’s right to safe therapeutic abortion services.

Properly fund Status of Women Canada, re-investing in women’s programs and organizations who had their funding cut by the Harper government.

Re-open regional Status of Women offices and strengthen their mandate to achieve equality for women.

Paul Dewar and the New Democrats stand for a fair, efficient, transparent and accountable immigration system.

We will repeal the Harper government’s new immigration law (C-50), which was passed with the Liberals’ co-operation. We opposed the arbitrary, secretive and restrictive measures of the legislation and continue to do so. This legislation means increased exploitation of ‘guest workers’, more delays and restrictions for family reunification, less effective strategic planning for labour market needs, and more secretive and arbitrary decisions by cabinet ministers.

To increase Canada’s productivity, Paul Dewar and his New Democrat colleagues will:

Accelerate and streamline the recognition of foreign credentials, overseas degrees and previous employment experience in conjunction with provinces and licensing authorities.

Review the point system used to assess new applications to match the reality of work in Canada, including specific provisions for blue-collar workers and tradespeople.

Increase financial support for the settlement process for new Canadians to assist with literacy, community integration and orientation, including bridging, mentorship, English and French as a second language (ESL and FSL) programs and resource service centres.

To improve family reunification, Paul Dewar and his New Democrat colleagues will:

Significantly increase resources and support for immigration processes to reduce the huge and unacceptable backlogs that currently exist in processing applications, work to meet Canada’s target of annual immigration (1% of population), and establish firm targets for on-time completion of family class and spousal sponsorships.

Stop the decline in family reunification, and maximize the economic and social advantages of family stability.

Implement the New Democrats’ Once In a Lifetime bill to expedite sponsorship of one family member as a new Canadian.

Eliminate landing fees for new immigrants, as well as processing fees for refugees and people fleeing torture or domestic violence.

To establish fairness in the immigration system, Paul Dewar and the New Democrats will:

Develop credible, accountable procedures and appeal processes for potential visitors to Canada for important family events such as weddings, births and illness, and for the reunification of married couples.

Properly regulate immigration consultants to stop abuse of immigrants and potential immigrants, and crack down on unscrupulous and illegal activities.

Immediately implement the provision in the Immigration Act for a refugee appeal division to help facilitate a fair refugee hearing and determination process, and ensure that all vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board are filled in a fair and transparent manner.

Eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities in admission processes.

Allow people without status who are living in Canada the opportunity to apply for legal status.

Continue to ensure that all new Canadians have access to the "core" immigration system, rather than expand the Liberal-Conservative temporary "guest worker" and "live-in caregiver" programs. These programs deny basic employee rights, do not allow application for immigration, and result in longer delays in the entire system.

To create a more compassionate Canada, Paul Dewar and his New Democrat colleagues will:

Through the refugee class of immigration offer new hope to people fleeing persecution, violence and repression.

Based on the recent decision by the Federal Court of Appeal that overruled the "safe third country" approach, abrogate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States so all refugee claimants are granted a hearing outside of Canada.

Establish a special program to allow "Iraq War resisters" from the US to remain in Canada.