From traffic to bad air, low-income groups face the worst of climate change in Toronto: experts

Breathing hasn't been easy in Toronto this June, as multiple air quality warnings have highlighted, but climate-related health risks can be especially acute for under-served communities, experts say.

Research shows communities that house lower-income immigrant populations and that are made up of older, poorly maintained buildings face greater exposure to health risks like polluted air and extreme heat, climate experts told CBC Toronto.

But with new municipal leadership being ushered in next week, the city has an opportunity to tackle local climate concerns that affect vulnerable groups and make better policy choices to protect those at higher risk. That's according to community advocate Michelle Dagnino, the executive director of the Jane and Finch Centre, a community organization in the neighbourhood located in the northwest end of Toronto.

"Lower-income folks are much more highly exposed to the impacts of climate change," said Dagnino.

Climate change has not been widely emphasized in the mayoral campaign from top candidates, according to CBC Toronto reporting. Candidates have proposed initiatives from electric buses to reducing the waste from high-rise buildings. But the plans say little about protecting groups that are most vulnerable.

Neighbourhoods in the northwest end of Toronto and parts of Scarborough tucked along major highways that carry long-haul trucks dealt with worse air quality than other regions, according to a 2022 University of Toronto study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

And older apartment buildings in those areas don't always keep pollution out — whether it's from traffic or wildfires, according to another 2022 U of T study on air quality study published in the journal, Sustainable Cities and Society. 

Dagnino said basic tools to protect people aren't available to everyone, especially in lower income communities. Many of the residents her centre serves work in factories without air conditioning, let alone an air filter. And due to the high cost of housing, many of those residents live in cramped quarters with others in small apartments with poor indoor air, she said. 

"Many of these buildings, a lot of Toronto Community Housing buildings in particular, have not been maintained. They have bad circulation [and] issues with mould," she said. 

And there's less green space available in those communities too. For instance, Jane and Finch has green spaces but they aren't developed for public use and lack benches or walkways, said Dagnino.

There are cheaper housing options near highways due to factors like pollution, but it's hard to determine which came first— the highways or the housing, said Jeffrey Brook, an associated professor at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Brook specializes in urban air quality and created a project with colleagues called HealthyDesign.City that maps the air quality of dozens of cities in Canada and compares demographic data including visible minority population with factors like tree canopy cover. 

He said climate-related risks facing under-served neighbourhoods are exacerbated by the fact that communities made up of newcomers and lower-income groups may not speak English and can lack the agency to fight decisions that could hurt them.

Well-off communities "know the system, they have more power in general," he said.