As many tenants in apartments without air conditioning continue to suffer through summers with periods of extreme heat, a new City of Toronto report stops short of imposing a maximum temperature inside units.
In a report going to the City’s executive committee, staff said potential issues with provincial laws, installation and operating cost impacts and the need for additional research are contributing to the lack of a recommendation.
In late 2024, Toronto city council endorsed imposing a 26 C maximum in rental apartments and in common cooling rooms. Since that time, City staff said there have been consultations with the public.
Advocates argued that there are health and safety impacts for tenants who don’t have air conditioning in a city where in recent years there have been days where temperatures have soared into 40-plus C. However, some landlords argued that the cost of retrofitting units and buildings would result in high costs that might ultimately be passed on to tenants.
The report, which is set to be reviewed by Mayor Olivia Chow and councillors on Tuesday, instead focuses on the approximately 3,600 apartments governed under the RentSafeTO program that regulates maintenance standards.
Staff recommended requiring buildings without air conditioning in units and with an existing common amenity space to make sure it is at a maximum of 26 C between June 1 and Sept. 30 of each year so long as construction or demolition aren’t required.
They also called for the continuation of an assistance program that has worked on a pilot project basis to get air conditioners to low-income and vulnerable households.
There have also been calls for the Ontario government to impose limits in an effort to protect vulnerable tenants, including a proposed endorsement by staff for Toronto city council to ask for residential cooling to be a vital service. City staff said they’d like to see the Ontario government give tenants better protections to install window air conditioners.
Gadi Katz, the interim executive director of the City of Toronto’s municipal licensing and standards department, said staff need until 2027 to carry out further study of the issue.
“I think it’s important for us to do a bit of the legwork and the research to find out what that would look like in the real world, and part of this report would allow us to go back and do sort of a compliance impact analysis that would look at things like, what would it take to bring certain types of buildings into compliance with a maximum temperature, or what are the costs or what are the implications for tenants of those buildings, if that requirement was made?” he told CityNews Wednesday afternoon.
“I think we have to operate within the frameworks that we have and our goal … Toronto is experiencing sort of heat-related issues now and those issues are going to increase in the future.”
He noted no other municipality in Canada currently has a bylaw to cap indoor apartment temperatures, but added the Government of British Columbia is currently looking at amending its building code to make access to cooling easier.
Meanwhile, two other reports are going to be considered by the executive committee. One is focused on a work plan to make the municipality more resilient to the effects of climate change.
The second report called for improvements to the City’s heat relief strategy, including better communications on pool operations, improved health and safety protocols for workers and municipal program participants, expanded access to water stations, more cooling spaces and better emergency planning. These recommendations came after parts of Toronto saw pool closures during days when there was extreme heat.
