City staff recommend Toronto set a maximum temperature bylaw for all apartments

A new City of Toronto report is recommending council adopt a maximum heat bylaw that would require landlords to keep all rental units at or below 26 C — a move meant to protect tenants from health risks as climate change brings more frequent and extreme heat events to Toronto.
While city law protects tenants in the winter by requiring that all rental units be at least 21 C, there is no equivalent law giving renters the right to cooling when it’s hot out.
Currently apartments with air conditioning must be 26 C or cooler, but that rule doesn’t apply for apartments without air conditioning. 
The report noted Canada has seen hundreds of deaths from extreme heat indoors in just the last few years, and while everyone is vulnerable to excessive heat, older adults, disabled people and low-income groups are among those most at risk.
“The risk of heat is increased in some populations that are more sensitive to heat or have lower ability to cope or adapt,” it said. “The locations of these communities often overlap with hotter areas of the City, putting people further at risk.”
The report will go to the city’s planning and housing committee next week, and will be considered by city council on Dec. 17. 
In addition to the maximum heat standard, city staff recommended council amend the municipal code by April 30 to:
Staff also called on city council to ask the Ontario government to amend the Residential Tenancies Act to include cooling as a vital service and implement the maximum heat standard of 26 C. 
Environmental, tenant and disability advocates have long called for a maximum heat standard and in the summer of 2023, city council directed city staff to investigate minimum and maximum temperatures requirements to find out what standards would protect tenants’ health. 
The report noted that hundreds of Canadians have died in recent years due to extreme heat indoors.
In the summer of 2021, the deaths of at least 619 people in B.C. were associated with a “prolonged and unprecedented heat dome.” Ninety-eight per cent of those deaths occurred in a home and 90 per cent of deaths were among people aged 60 and older, the report said.
In 2018, at least 66 people died in Montreal due to an extreme heat event; eighty-eight per cent of them died in a residence, the report noted. Among those who died, 31 per cent had hypertension, and a fourth had diabetes or a psychiatric disorder.
Brad Evoy, executive director of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, said the deaths and worsening climate change make it increasingly apparent that a change is needed. 
“To avoid the kinds of cardiovascular and respiratory deaths that happen during these events, we need legislation and bylaws in place to protect our communities,” said Brad Evoy, executive director of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario.
In 2003, several European countries experienced a prolonged extreme heat event, during which some 70,000 people died, the report adds.