Will Toronto legislate a maximum temperature in apartments?
Global News
Similar to the way landlords must keep units heated when it's cold, the coalition wants the city to legislate protections to keep residences no warmer than 26 degrees.
Anushen Selvasegar can barely fit his hand through the narrow opening in his bedroom window to feel the breeze outside of his 14th-floor apartment in St. James Town, one of Toronto’s most densely populated neighbourhoods.
The portable air conditioner in the living room offers some relief, but the cool air does not reach the bedrooms and other corners of the apartment he shares with his parents and teenage sister, and definitely not in a scorching heat wave. Under a policy applied in Toronto’s social housing highrises, the windows only open 10 centimetres wide.
Selvasegar, 20, says his family keeps the ice box full and the stove off as much as possible during heat waves. But their options to stay cool are limited.
“We are low income and it’s not exactly easy to just buy whatever we want to cool ourselves off,” he said.
A punishing heat wave descended over large parts of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada this week, with temperatures set to top 30 C for consecutive days in some places and feel as hot as 40 to 45 C with the humidity.
Selvasegar is part of a coalition of tenant and environmental advocacy organizations, backed by seniors’ and disability rights groups, who are demanding Toronto bring in a maximum temperature bylaw.
Similar to the way landlords must keep units heated when it’s cold, the coalition wants the city to legislate protections to keep residences no warmer than 26 degrees when outdoor temperatures increase.
A bylaw setting a maximum temperature for all residential units, not just those already equipped with an air conditioner, would be a first of its kind in Canada, advocates say. It could, in effect, require all building owners to provide and maintain cooling.
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