70% of Manitoba Housing units studied went days with indoor temperatures at or above 26 C

The majority of Manitoba Housing units tested by CBC News this summer recorded heat that could put the health of some residents at risk, as a resident and a tenant advocate call on government to make it easier to install air conditioning in social housing.

Seventy per cent of the units tested by CBC News remained at or above 26 C for periods ranging from 10 to 75 per cent of the approximately two-month study period, despite Manitoba's cooler-than-normal temperatures this July and August.

A national CBC News investigation found some people across the country live in homes with around-the-clock heat and humidity levels experts consider dangerous. In Winnipeg, the peak temperature measured was in a fifth-floor apartment on Kennedy Street that hit 32.3 C in mid-June. The same unit had 44 out of 59 days where the temperature never dropped below 26 C.

"As you get above 26 degrees it becomes more stressful on the body," said University of Ottawa professor of physiology Glen Kenny. "When you are exposed to the heat, the heart is working much harder."

Among the most at-risk during extreme heat are the elderly, babies and the medically compromised, Health Canada says.

Kenny says keeping indoor temperatures below 26 C is "really about protecting your life."

CBC News collected data in five cities: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Windsor. Reporters identified 10 households in each city with zero or minimal central cooling and installed heat and humidity sensors to take measurements every 10 minutes. CBC teams activated most of the sensors in late June and collected the data in mid-August.

In Winnipeg, 10 sensors were placed in Manitoba Housing units throughout the city. 

Winnipeg cardiac patient Denise Gauthier spent an extra day in hospital this June because her doctor did not want to risk sending her back to her overheated home.

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Gauthier, who has heart failure, said she put in a request to Manitoba Housing to have her window air conditioning unit installed at the end of April, but that didn't happen until the third week of June.

Gauthier says the provincial Crown corporation installed it for her after her windows were replaced earlier this year, an exception to their usual policy.

Manitoba Housing policy states air conditioners must be obtained by residents and a professional must be hired to install them, although "some of the newer builds do include A/C as part of construction," wrote a departmental spokesperson, who added the department does not track where the units with air conditioning are located. 

The policy also bans tenants from having more than one unit per home due to electrical capacity in older buildings.