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Bonita Zarrillo

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
NDP

Port Moody—Coquitlam
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 68%
Expenses Last Quarter: $129,260.13

Government Page

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

Feb/7/24 7:52:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, today I want to speak about the fact that so many Canadians are suffering from losing or potentially losing their housing. Recently in the House, I asked the housing minister what the government was going to do about keeping seniors in their rental homes as many of the affordable rental homes for seniors are being gutted for luxury condos. Luxury condo developers are buying up land, getting it rezoned and upzoned, and displacing the people who have lived in those homes for 10, 20, 30 years, and sometimes longer. I was at a redevelopment where a 70-year-old senior asked if I could help find a long-term care home, because a developer had come and bought up that low-rise rental housing and there was nowhere for that senior to go. I was talking to an educational assistant in her 60s who wants to retire, but is being displaced in my community of Port Moody—Coquitlam. She told me that she has nowhere to go. She has spent her entire career supporting families in this community, sibling after sibling. She loves the community, but is being pushed out by greed. I think about the fact that the government continues to miss the mark on supporting and protecting rental homes. Conservatives lost 800,000 affordable homes. Liberals have done nothing to make up for those losses and it is affecting people on the ground. I also want to talk about transit. We know that we need more public transit investment. The Liberal government is so far behind on its investments in communities, it would much rather spend its money on greedy CEOs who want new freezers than make sure that EAs and the seniors who have lived in our communities forever are being displaced. That is where the Liberals are focused. That is what they want to do. Therefore, I am here today to ask the Liberal government this. Why it is so hard for it to invest in communities and people? Why is it missing the boat on transit? The Metro Vancouver mayors have been here advocating for a transit investment. The infrastructure minister said that they will get it two years from now. That is not good enough. If they do not get the money for two years, they cannot even build for another two on top of that. What is the Liberal government doing to make sure that communities are kept whole, and that people have a place to live and transit to use?

421 words

Context: House Hansard - 254 - Nov/23/23

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo

Nov/23/23 11:22:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is such an important question. For eight years, I sat at a city council table and saw that perfectly affordable housing was being bought by large corporations and upzoned for them, and then almost a quarter of the condos they were building were sitting empty for years. The efforts of the development industry to pull profits out of communities at the cost of affordable homes for Canadians of all ages were very difficult to watch, because we could see the profit leaving communities. Those developments were not building communities, and we can see now that we have a lot more work to do in the area of bringing back affordable units. It is 15:1. People cannot afford to live in these communities anymore when they are taken over by real estate trusts and development groups that build luxury condo after luxury condo.

146 words

Context: House Hansard - 237 - Oct/23/23

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo

Oct/23/23 6:59:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really hope that the member and I can work more closely together and that we can go out together and look at some of those sites in my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam. There is a lot of opportunity, but unfortunately, the supply crisis where I live in my community is driven by the loss of affordable units. It is 15 to one that we are losing affordable units. When we talk about those units that are along transit or close to shopping, those used to be affordable units, but now they are luxury condos, up to 50 storeys tall. According to some of the housing data that is collected, almost a quarter of them are sitting empty. That is why the Government of B.C. recently brought into place a ban or limit on the Airbnbs, because those units were actually built to be Airbnbs. They are displacing long-term residents, who have rented for a very long time, with luxury units that they can no longer afford. Yes, let us get together. However, could the member please tell me how we get those conversations started earlier with the federal government?

196 words

Context: House Hansard - 200 - May/18/23

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

May/18/23 2:46:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average rent in Coquitlam is now $2,800, the third-highest in the country. Seniors, single mothers and people with disabilities are being evicted, as their long-time rental homes are being replaced with luxury condos. I met a single mom whose rent went up 50%, just so she could stay in her community after she was displaced by a for-profit developer. This is unacceptable. What the Liberals are doing now is not working. What are they going to do to keep rents affordable?

88 words

Context: House Hansard - 186 - Apr/27/23

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo

Apr/27/23 7:15:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is probably not a good question to ask me, because no, I have not. Even though there has been investment in my community, we have lost housing at a rate of 15 to one. Affordable housing has come down, and luxury condos have gone up. Up to 20% of those condos are sitting empty, and our homelessness rate is rising, our mental health impacts are rising and our opioid overdoses are rising. We cannot sit in this House saying we are doing A, B and C, when the results are not happening on the ground, and I will say that the National Housing Council just came forward with a report that said the national housing strategy is not working.

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Member of Parliament

Bonita Zarrillo