Toronto considers maximum temperature for apartments

As climate change fuels hotter summers and more extreme heat events, Toronto is taking steps to protect tenants in apartments without air conditioning. The city’s planning and housing committee approved a staff report on Thursday, recommending adoption of the city’s first maximum heat bylaw, aimed at reducing health risks.

City law mandates a minimum temperature of 21 C in winter but lacks a similar rule for cooling in summer. While air-conditioned apartments must stay below 26 C, this standard doesn’t apply to units without air conditioning.

The proposed bylaw, which will go before city council on Dec. 17, would require landlords to maintain indoor temperatures in rental units below 27 C. If approved, the regulation will take effect on April 30, 2025, in time for summer.

A city spokesperson said Toronto is already grappling with more frequent and prolonged heat waves that stretch beyond traditional seasonal norms.

“As the climate continues to change, the risks of heat-related impacts are expected to increase,” reads the city's email response to questions from Canada’s National Observer. “This is especially a concern for tenants living in apartment buildings where there is no air conditioning or cooling equipment.” 

The maximum indoor temperature standard aims to prevent heat-related harms, while balancing housing affordability, decarbonization, public health and stakeholder perspectives, the city said.

Advocates have long pushed for a maximum heat standard, prompting Coun. Shelley Carroll to introduce a motion for an adequate temperature bylaw in summer 2023, which led city council to direct staff to investigate.

In an emailed statement, tenants' rights advocacy group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) expressed support for the staff report but urged the city to act quickly. “Extreme heat is already negatively affecting the most vulnerable in our city,” said Marcia Stone, member of ACORN. “Seniors, low-income tenants and people with pre-existing medical conditions are at a heightened risk of death due to extreme heat.”

The group also called on city officials to fund and launch an emergency, free air conditioner program for low-income Torontonians before next summer. B.C. launched a similar program last summer in the wake of its deadly heat wave in 2021.

During British Columbia's 2021 heat dome, over 600 people died — mostly vulnerable seniors living without air conditioning.

Toronto and Montreal are the “deadliest” cities in Canada for heat waves, according to Statistics Canada research released earlier this year. Between 2000 and 2020, Toronto reported 250 heat-related deaths, while Montreal recorded 295, accounting for nearly half of the national total of 700 fatalities.

In other cities, tenants' rights advocates are also pushing for policies to regulate high temperatures in rental units, recognizing the growing risks of extreme heat, prompting several municipalities across Canada to explore maximum temperature bylaws.

Toronto is also advocating for provincial action, recommending amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act to establish a stricter maximum temperature standard of 26 C for all rental units and to classify cooling as a vital service.

A climate change report commissioned by Ontario’s Ford government and released last year warned of a significant increase in extreme weather across the province in coming decades. By the 2080s, southern, central and eastern Ontario are expected to experience more extreme heat days, with temperatures soaring over 30 C, the report states. The projection ranges from 55 to 60 such days per year, nearly four times the current average of about 16 days.