Bonita Zarrillo

[Health, October 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, 10 million Canadians will not have a family doctor by the end of the decade. With an aging population, this is unacceptable. The Liberals have been dragging their feet for years on health care, while the Conservatives' answer is to make people pay for that care.

Despite the Liberals' announcements, the pan-Canadian licensure for doctors is still not a reality. It would get more people connected with a doctor. Why are the Liberals dragging their feet on this simple health solution?

[Privilege, October 21st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to hear the member talking about awarding federal funds and transparency. In my community, the Anmore Community Hub was awarded $1.5 million of ICIP funding, and there are reports in the community that kickbacks might have gone to the mayor and council. Now, the federal government offers no oversight to such corruption. With the need for even more community infrastructure investments in the future, do the Conservatives agree that more oversight is needed on these funds as well?

[Flight Attendants' Remuneration Act, October 21st, 2024]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-415, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (flight attendants).

Mr. Speaker, I am introducing a bill to stop the exploitation of Canada's flight attendants. I want to thank the member for Hamilton Centre for seconding it.

Flight attendants have been exploited since the commercial aviation industry was launched because they were women. The exploitation continues today as billion-dollar airline companies profit off the backs of unpaid work. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have let this happen.

Today, flight attendants who work in a federally regulated industry are expected to work for free up to 35 hours per month. This must end, and it can end with the adoption of this NDP bill. It would ensure that for every hour worked, flight attendants are paid their full wage, and that a long-standing discriminatory practice is rectified.

I thank the Canadian Union of Public Employees, whose workers took a stand with a very successful campaign called “Unpaid Work Won't Fly”. It has been an honour to work alongside them on this important legislation.

I call on the Liberal government to do what is right, adopt my bill as its own and take immediate action to make sure that unpaid work will not fly.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Labour, October 21st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, flight attendants, who are predominantly women, work an average of 35 hours a month unpaid. Consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have overlooked this issue for decades. The big airline bosses are profiting off of the unpaid labour of flight attendants. It is time for this exploitation to end.

Today, I will be tabling a bill to end unpaid work for all flight attendants in Canada. Will the government support it?

[Housing, October 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians deserve a government that protects them, so why are the Liberals, along with the Conservatives, continuing to protect the profits of corporate landlords over renters struggling to find a home?

[Housing, October 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the housing minister needs to tell his members to stop blocking the presence of these CEOs in committee. For Canadians who rent, finding a home they can afford is nearly impossible, and these rich corporate landlords are using artificial intelligence software to potentially collude and jack up rents. The NDP proposed a study to expose rent gouging, but the Liberals and Conservatives teamed up and blocked it.

[Persons with Disabilities, October 4th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the minister said the government would hold back the Canada disability benefit until July 2025. What a disgrace. Over a million people with disabilities live in poverty today. They need support to pay for rent, groceries and medication. The Conservatives are no better. They will cut dental care, health care and essential services that persons with disabilities are entitled to. The government needs to act now, not next year.

Will it stop the delay and deliver the Canada disability benefit immediately?

[Persons with Disabilities, October 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals continue to violate the human rights of persons with disabilities.

Even while it is getting sued by its own accessibility commissioner, the government continues to propose an inadequate and inaccessible Canada disability benefit. This is cruel and callous. The government has received over 10,000 pieces of input through consultation, and the cabinet needs to act on it.

Will the Liberals finally listen to the disability community, increase the benefit, unlock it from behind the inaccessible disability tax credit and get it out to people now?

[Committees of the House, October 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the government needs to start delivering an adequate income immediately. It has the money; it can make it happen and it needs to do it.

[Committees of the House, October 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre for the work that she has done to lift indigenous women out of poverty.

I mentioned earlier that the Liberals' choices on income supports for Canadians are killing people. We know this is true for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, and the Liberals still continue to do nothing on the calls for justice.

What the Liberals need to do is start supporting people who are not their rich CEO friends with every kind of support that is available in Canada.