Toronto residents are calling on the city to implement a maximum temperature requirement in every apartment building in the event of another heat wave.
Last June, City Councillor Shelley Carroll put forward a motion directing city staff to examine and report back on temperature requirements and alternative measures to mitigate high indoor temperatures in apartment buildings.
As a result, the city says its staff are working with the global C40 Cool Cities Network to identify new options and measures to address the identified risks of high indoor temperatures on tenants and residents in multi-residential buildings.
Despite this, three groups in Toronto, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), and Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), have created the Toronto Heat Safety Coalition demanding the city to apply the bylaw.
Currently, there is no bylaw requiring all landlords to provide air conditioning to its tenants.
“If a rental unit has air conditioning, the Property Standards Bylaw currently requires that landlords turn it on between June 2 and September 14 so as to maintain an indoor temperature of not more than 26 degrees Celsius,” the city said in a statement to Now Toronto.
However, following the city’s recent extreme heatwave last week, some residents are emphasizing the need for a maximum temperature bylaw.
Toronto resident Millicent Parke lives at 2777 Kipling Ave. She says her apartment does not have a cooling system and her superintendent did not allow her to install a ceiling fan over claims it would add more pressure on the building’s old-fashioned electrical system.
During the heatwave, Parke says apartments became so hot that some people were forced to sit outside in the evenings.
“I feel that it has become suffocating. I have to go outside. I have to go outside for some fresh air. You can’t stand here. It’s like the rooms are on fire,” she said in an interview with Now.
Meanwhile, Secretary Treasurer of ACORN and East York resident Kelly Lalande lives at 444 Lumsden Ave. She says four years ago, the building exchanged its air conditioning units and provided free portable machines as a replacement. But now, she says the machines have become faulty and the superintendent is refusing to fix them.
“If we have any problems with our ACs, it’s our problem, because once they put them in the apartments, then they become our property. Right now, I’m dealing with a broken hose and I have to replace that hose ASAP, or else I don’t get any AC,” she said to Now.
Last week, Lalande claims there were five ambulance visits at her building for people experiencing extreme heat exhaustion. As a 62-year-old senior, she is among those who are vulnerable because she deals with asthma, hypertension and epilepsy.
“36 per cent of tenants don’t have access to AC in their units and the major reason for that is because landlords would rather threaten the tenants with eviction or charge extra fees between $50 and $550 for them to get the AC,” she explained to Now.
According to the city, landlords are encouraged to create a hot weather plan to help prepare and support tenants during extreme heat.
This includes designating an air-conditioned common room in their building as a cooling room for tenants, ensuring their Summer Heat Safety Notice is up to date to better inform tenants, checking in on tenants during hot summer days who are at risk of heat-related illness, advising tenants to visit the cooling room, and lastly, keeping the windows in hallways slightly open to allow cool air to circulate if safe to do so.
In addition, Lalande is urgently demanding the city to act now to protect people from the heat, ahead of another heatwave.
“…We should have more cooling centers, access to all who need it, and we should have free transportation by the TTC for the tenants that want to get to cooling centers during the hot days. I believe that Toronto Public Health should also track the heat related deaths and emergency visits during the extreme heat,” she explained.
The Toronto Heat Safety Coalition is requesting the city to establish an adequate temperature bylaw by 2025 that will ensure that all residential rental units in the city can be kept at a temperature of no greater than 26º C, among other measures.
“Another summer should not go by without the by-law being in place to protect tenants,” reads a statement in part from the coalition.
