The deaths of two men exposed to sub-zero temperatures earlier this week prompted the mayor of Toronto on Wednesday to call for a review of the way the city operates shelters for homeless people.
The city has only two overnight warming centres for the homeless and they can only be open when Toronto's chief medical officer of health issues an extreme cold weather alert.
Mayor John Tory said the city needs to fix the protocol that says extreme cold weather alerts can only be issued when the temperature falls below -15 C.
He ordered the centres opened immediately on Tuesday, just hours after a man was found without vital signs in a downtown Toronto bus shelter.
On Monday, a homeless man was found dead inside a truck at a west-end Toronto shipping yard on a day when temperatures plunged and the wind chill made it feel colder than -21 C.
Tory suggested the city should look at the forecast for the week, issue an alert and open the warming centres at the first sign of severe cold weather.
"Clearly we probably need to have sort of more discretion and better guidance in the hands of the chief medical officer so that we can make sure that we think first of protecting people that are homeless and vulnerable and that's got to be our first objective," said Tory.
Toronto Public Health said it has yet to receive a formal request for a policy review from Tory's office, but added that they would have "absolutely no concerns or issues with such a request."
Tory's decision to pre-emptively open the centres came after anti-poverty activists protested at city hall on Tuesday, saying the city was not doing enough to protect its vulnerable citizens.
Environment Canada issued its own extreme cold warning for most of the province, saying a cold front that passed through southern Ontario early Wednesday brought very cold temperatures and winds resulting in wind chill values near -30 C or lower.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.