Young and Barnes: A new city bylaw would help prevent heat-related deaths
Just as landlords are required by law to ensure indoor temperatures stay above a minimum in the winter, Ottawa — and other Ontario cities — need to urgently pass bylaws setting a maximum indoor temperature.
Statistics Canada estimates that around 36 per cent — nearly 150,000 — of Ottawa households are renters. Many have no power to control the temperature in their units. While Ottawa-specific data is scarce, a national survey from ACORN Canada found that 44 per cent of respondents had no access to air conditioning. When other factors are considered, such as old and inefficient building stock, poverty and the rising cost of living, it is no surprise that cooling is out of reach for too many.
Let's be clear: When it comes to extreme heat, the risks are here and worsening. The federal government states that 'extreme heat is the leading cause of illness and death from weather-related hazards in Canada.' A recent federal study shows higher-than-average risk of death during stretches of extreme heat in Canada's largest cities over the past 20 years. Risks were particularly high for people aged 65 or older.
Extreme heat doesn't just kill; it worsens heart conditions, triggers mental-health crises and heightens the risk of accidents. This reduces quality of life, diminishes economic productivity and adds to the burden on overstretched health systems.
We would never accept an apartment without heat in winter. So why do we tolerate deadly indoor heat in the summer? While the reasons behind the detrimental effects of extreme heat are layered and complex, there is a simple logic at its foundation: As a society, we continue to treat cooling as a luxury, rather than the necessity it has become in the face of rapidly accelerating climate change.
Effective solutions are within reach. Ontario cities such as Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston are at the forefront of debates around the adoption of maximum indoor temperature bylaws. These enforce a legal upper bound to indoor temperatures, usually around 26 degrees Celsius. While the bylaw debate proceeds, some cities are rolling out stopgap measures, where air conditioning is provided in specific cases.
Ottawa needs to join the movement in favour of strong maximum temperature bylaws. In the meantime, more needs to be done to get the word out on existing programs to access cooling devices through the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), Ontario Works (OW) and Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities (ACSD), which are available from June 1 to Sept. 15. In short, Ontario physicians or nurse practitioners can write a prescription for a cooling device, allowing eligible tenants to access funds for air-conditioning units.
Heat waves have become an inescapable fact of life in a rapidly warming world, but smart policy choices can make a difference now. Every summer we delay costs lives. It's time for Ottawa to treat cooling like the right it has become, and enact measures to close the gap for so many in our city. Now is the time to take the peril out of summer, for everyday residents and for those most vulnerable, living on the front lines of climate change.
Dr. Lorin Young (MD, MSc, FRCPC) is a general psychiatrist. Robb Barnes is climate program director for Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE).
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