SoVote

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo (Port Moody—Coquitlam, NDP)

Dec/2/21 6:07:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a mother, I want to thank the hon. member for her words. We do not hear enough of this in the chamber. However, I certainly hear a lot in my riding about mothers who work essential, frontline work with non-traditional hours. I thank the member's constituents for their essential, frontline work during this COVID pandemic. Those frontline workers who work non-traditional hours rely on family members, such as mothers, sisters, brothers and fathers to help with their child care. However, too many in my riding cannot get visitor visas for their family members to come over to help them with their child care needs and to help them with emotional and physical support. Can the member share what we can do or what the government can do to get those visas moving?

138 words

Context: House Hansard - 9 - Dec/2/21

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo (Port Moody—Coquitlam, NDP)

Dec/2/21 7:09:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk in the House about housing supply. Across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, up to 25% of newly built luxury condos are sitting vacant and homes, including older housing co-ops and purpose-built rental apartments that have served our communities for decades are being bought up by developers at a rapid speed. Developers are buying them up, because government policies have turned the housing market into a stock market. Governments at every level have overseen the financialization of housing. Instead of protecting our social housing stock they encouraged upzoning and gentrification in the name of density. Density dreams belong to developers. The financialization of housing is only working for the wealthy and leaving people behind. Truly affordable social housing has been sacrificed to create an asset class for pension funds and the wealthiest people and companies across the globe. Right now in my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam, hundreds of older townhomes and apartments are sitting empty. There are entire blocks of single-family homes boarded up ready for redevelopment, and these homes have been empty for years. Developers choose not to fill them, so they do not have spend one cent on maintenance or pay tenants out when the time comes to begin redevelopment. This is wrong. During this housing crisis, governments have allowed wealthy developers to hoard housing, allowing perfectly good homes to sit empty to protect the profits of corporations over the well-being of my residents. There is also a problem with the marketing of housing. High-end sales centres for luxury condos exist overseas. Actually, when a traveller arrives through the international terminal at YVR, there are enticing posters of luxury housing to attract international investment. Even on the local front, developers begin marketing projects even before the municipalities rezone the land. It is disrespectful and it disregards communities. The current housing crisis appears to be a crisis of negligence in protecting precious housing supply that people call home. I hear the calls for “supply, supply, supply”, and I need to clarify that call. What is needed is affordable supply. The federal government must put a laser focus on maintaining what is left of housing co-ops, purpose-built rentals, not-for-profit-run housing, in the country before it is all gone, and the federal government needs to immediately reinvest in social housing, not in capital loans, but ongoing, stable operating funds to get people housed now. I want to share just a few of the things I have heard from social housing partners on the ground that are competing with corporate interests to keep the most vulnerable housed. For every one new purpose-built rental unit that is being built, we are losing three. The federal government needs a moratorium on REITs. The rate they are buying up co-ops and purpose-built rental housing is alarming and is contributing to disappearing rental stock. We need a social development acquisition fund in addition to the urban housing accelerator fund, so not-for-profits can buy housing. What I hear from the not-for-profits is that right now they need to put up their own capital to secure funding for the rental housing incentives, and that does not work for them. CMHC is not nimble enough. The limitations at CMHC need to be fixed. It has not been able to deliver housing at the pace of the need. I ask the minister again to get much-needed affordable homes to people now.

592 words

Context: House Hansard - 9 - Dec/2/21

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo

Dec/2/21 7:17:52 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I remember the minister coming to my community for an opening, for a photo opportunity, and the government came in at the very last minute, at the 11th hour of that project, with a loan. After almost five years of negotiation with local partners, with non-profits, with our city and with the taxpayers of the city of Coquitlam, who came forward with their own money, the government showed up at the 11th hour with a small loan. This is not working for housing providers. The housing is just not getting on the ground at the speed that it needs to come. In relation to the rapid housing initiatives, that information did not come down to municipalities fast enough. There were so many problems and gaps with it. There were many, many projects denied, which did not get built. We need solutions now. I understand there are plans. What can we be doing now?

156 words