OTTAWA – New Democrat MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre) has emphasized pension protection and job creation in his budget submission to the minister of finance.

“First and foremost, community members in Ottawa Centre want the government to invest in supporting those who have been hit the hardest by this recession and protect Canadians’ hard-earned pensions” wrote Dewar in his report of pre-budget consultation with Ottawa Centre residents.

“In our region, former Nortel employees and their families have watched the company dishonour its pension and long-term disability commitments while rewarding its executives with massive bonuses. The community wants an end to the unfair treatment of workers” wrote Dewar.

He recommended amendments to bankruptcy and creditor laws to ensure that pensioners are at the front of the line when businesses cannot meet their financial obligations.

Dewar also emphasized job creation and called for investments to create green-collar jobs and reinvigorate the high tech sector in our region. He echoed the community’s call for a national housing strategy to make affordable and quality housing more accessible and address homelessness.  He also called for making credit more accessible to small businesses and repeated the community’s support for arts and culture funding.

In addition to job creation measures, Dewar called on the government to address the looming structural deficit by ending its unbalanced corporate tax policy. Dewar warned against ideological approaches to cost-cutting and stated: “The important work and the hard-earned pensions of Canada’s civil servants must be protected against any such approach”.