People walk amongst the high rises of St. James Town in Toronto. Last year, Canada’s most populous city experienced a record 29 heat warnings, double the number in 2024.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
On Victoria Day weekend, with winter barely in the rearview mirror, Toronto experienced its first heat warning of the season.
Last year, Canada’s most populous city experienced a record 29 heat warnings, double the number in 2024. This year, the number could be even higher.
So what is Toronto doing to protect its citizens and visitors from soaring summer temperatures?
Last week, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Michelle Murti, announced the city’s heat-relief strategy, with the aim of reducing health risks, especially for populations who are more vulnerable to hot weather.
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There are two principal aspects to the strategy: making air-conditioned spaces more accessible, and drinking water more available in public spaces.
The city has designated 500 buildings as “cool spaces.” These include libraries (which are becoming increasingly important social hubs), community centres and civic centres. There will also be a 24/7 cooling centre for the unhoused in the downtown core.
When it gets really hot, the hours of public pools will be extended. And the city has vowed that, unlike last year, there will not be unexpected shutdowns due to staffing shortages.
There will also be some special measures put in place around World Cup games, including misting stations and water-bottle refill stations near stadiums.
But the biggest threat from the summer heat is not to people outdoors, but to those in sweltering apartments.
“The risk of heat illness for vulnerable individuals increases when the indoor temperature in their living space stays above 26 C for prolonged periods of time,” Dr. Murti said.
Toronto has a program that provides air-conditioning units to low-income seniors; it is slated to deliver 2,400 units this year. And on June 1, a new rule took effect that requires some apartment buildings in the city without air conditioning to provide a common space cooled to below 26 C so tenants can get a break from the heat.
However, the obligation is only for buildings with common amenity spaces like party rooms, and does not require new common spaces to be built.
Still, the new rule will have some impact because the City of Toronto is the largest provider of social housing in the country, with more than 60,000 units in 2,100 buildings.
Cool rooms are better than nothing. But what is really needed are regulations about the temperature in individual apartments.
Toronto, like most every city, has a bylaw that requires a minimum temperature of 21 C in units where heat is provided at the property owner’s expense, from Oct. 1 to May 15.
But there is no such rule for maximum temperature. It has been the subject of debate at Toronto city council, though – since 2012!
The major sticking point is a fear that a maximum-temperature bylaw would force landlords to undertake costly renovations, and that those costs would be passed on to tenants. In a city where rents can already be punishing, that could be problematic.
But when the alternative is people dying gruesome deaths from overheating, action is required. And there can be mitigation measures introduced, such as tax rebates, to smooth the transition.
Currently, Toronto city council is waiting for city staff to provide a “framework for discussion” around the issue by month’s end.
So far, only one city in Canada has adopted a maximum-temperature bylaw: New Westminster, B.C., in a move prompted by B.C.’s deadly 2021 heat dome. A coroner’s report found 619 people in the province died during the heat dome, including 33 in New Westminster, which had the highest per-capita mortality rate. Ninety-eight per cent of the deaths were indoors, predominantly vulnerable, isolated seniors living in apartments.
When temperatures soar, “the most dangerous place shouldn’t be people’s homes,” New Westminster city councillor Nadine Nakagawa said at the time the bylaw was passed.
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Other cities, like Vancouver and Victoria, are considering similar bylaws. Vancouver is also looking at imposing fines on landlords who don’t allow tenants in rental homes to use portable air conditioners.
All these little measures help, but at some point, we’re going to need more robust plans to protect citizens and visitors from soaring temperatures, including protecting tenants.
We long ago realized that Canadians needed to be protected from the cold, with minimum-temperature standards.
But in a rapidly warming world, the time has arrived for similar maximum-temperature rules to provide relief from the heat.