A person takes in the sun at Berczy Park on a hot day in Toronto in May, 2026. Toronto is bringing a maximum heat bylaw to its city council next year.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Monica Bhandari’s New Westminster apartment gets hot. Hot enough for her to take more than a half dozen cold showers each day and rub ice on her feet and neck.
She’s lived in her apartment near Vancouver for 10 years, sleeping in her living room for months when her bedroom gets too hot to stay in.
“I have left my apartment at times, and I go outside, and it’s cooler than it is in my apartment,” Ms. Bhandari said.
“The best thing for me to do is to actually leave.”
Although Health Canada recommends maintaining a maximum indoor temperature of 26 C in a June, 2026, report, New Westminster is the rare city in Canada that has implemented a bylaw limiting how hot rental units can get. The bylaw came into effect on June 8.
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Across Canada, few municipalities have acted upon calls for maximum-heat bylaws. Despite New Westminster’s actions, British Columbia has not made any updates to its Residential Tenancy Act. Ontario has updated its Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants the right to install window or portable AC units as of July 1.
New Westminster enacted its bylaw in response to the 2021 heat dome, which led to the deaths of 619 British Columbians, including 33 from the Metro Vancouver municipality. A report from the British Columbia Coroners Service said more than 98 per cent of these deaths happened indoors, and mostly involved seniors and isolated individuals in deprived neighbourhoods. Almost every death occurred in a home without air conditioning.
Ms. Bhandari is the co-chair of the New Westminster office for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN Canada advocates for social and economic justice issues, including for maximum heat bylaws such as the one implemented in New Westminster.
The New Westminster bylaw states that a tenant’s rental unit must contain at least one living space that does not exceed an average of 26 C between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., from April to October.
“We just want to make sure that people actually have the option to go home at night and actually be able to sleep securely in their bed,” said Patrick Johnstone, mayor of New Westminster.
“The community is afraid of the last heat dome we had.”
Last year, New Westminster introduced a bylaw to prohibit landlords from not allowing air conditioners in rental units. The city is also urging the province to change the Residential Tenancy Act to include similar bylaws.
The new bylaw does not direct how landlords need to meet the temperature requirement and Mr. Johnstone said the city plans to provide property owners with support to ensure they can comply.
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But David Hutniak, chief executive officer of Landlord BC, said in an e-mailed statement that infrastructure and financial challenges were not addressed when New Westminster council brought in the bylaw.
The city has suggested alternative methods to reduce the heat in rental units, including ceiling fans, blackout curtains and portable air conditioning units, but Mr. Hutniak said “we are not confident that the low-cost measures will actually satisfy the bylaw.”
He said landlords are concerned about recovering the costs of upgrades that require capital expenditure. Landlords are also worried about electrical capacity in older rental buildings, which may be insufficient for the demands of cooling, Mr. Hutniak said.
Marianne Touchie, a University of Toronto professor who researches building performance, said interior solutions, such as curtains, are ineffective for shading. Instead, buildings should be shaded with exterior blinds to appropriately keep solar heat out.
Keeping homes cool might also mean sacrificing features that lock heat in, she said, such as using windows that reject solar heat.
“You’re maybe not going to save as much energy in the wintertime, but you’re going to make those houses way more habitable in the summertime,” Dr. Touchie said. “I just don’t think we’re in the habit. It’s not our tradition to think about summertime overheating.”
Like B.C., the provincial government in Alberta has not made any changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to protect tenants from the heat.
Abi Martin, city centre chair for ACORN Calgary, wants that city to adopt a maximum-temperature bylaw of 26 C and a program to provide subsidized air conditioning units to seniors and low-income renters.
But despite some in local government supporting ACORN’s suggestions, the city defers to the province. The 2021 heat wave saw an estimated 66 deaths in the province, according to a report presented to Calgary councillors.
“Whoever keeps passing the buck onto each other is still responsible and culpable to these deaths, so we are continuing to fight,” said Mx. Martin. “You owe it to the citizens and your constituents to do something, literally anything.”
As of June 1, Toronto apartment buildings with three or more storeys and 10 or more units that do not provide cooling but that have an indoor amenity space must ensure the space stays at or below 26 C until Sept. 30. But if construction is needed to meet the requirement, the bylaw doesn’t apply.
Toronto is bringing a maximum heat bylaw to its city council in 2027, where older housing stock faces similar challenges with cooling as in other cities across Canada.
If passed, the new bylaw may provide relief to Hadya Ashraf, a member of the Toronto Tenant Union, who lives in a Toronto apartment without central air conditioning.
“I do have to sometimes go out for a walk to just get some air because it gets really suffocating,” she said. “It’s really difficult to stay in the unit. It’s difficult to work in the kitchen. It’s really difficult to get through the day.”
Until this year, residents in Ms. Ashraf’s building were prohibited from installing air conditioners. Now that Ontario has made it a legal right for tenants to use their own air conditioners, she said her neighbours have a better chance at comfort and safety.
“I definitely feel a bit more hopeful and just a bit excited that there’s an ability for tenants to install air conditioning,” said Ms. Ashraf.
