Author: Carine De Pauw

First published by Kaitlin Carroll October 9, 2024 by The Atmospheric Fund.

With rising global temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme heat events, protecting people from the harmful effects of heat exposure has become a critical public health priority. Toronto and Hamilton are two cities in Canada currently reviewing maximum temperature bylaws in response.

Heat waves can be deadly, particularly for those without adequate access to cooling. Lower-income individuals and renters, along with seniors, children, people living with chronic illnesses, and those living alone are at heightened risk. The three most impactful heat waves in Canada resulted in the cumulative deaths of over 1000 people in Canada. The British Columbia Heat Dome of 2021 was responsible for an estimated 619 deaths – the vast majority of people died in residential buildings without access to space cooling.

I work at The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), a non-profit agency working on urban solutions to climate change. My work is focused on building decarbonization within our Retrofit Accelerator program.  As Retrofit Services Manager, I work daily with tenants and housing providers, looking for ways to affordably reduce carbon emissions and improve tenant comfort in their buildings. Based on the temperatures we’ve monitored in these buildings pre-retrofit, and the technical and financial challenges building owners are facing, it’s not about if we need protective policies, but how we design and implement them. 

TAF’s recent policy brief on maximum temperature bylaws lays out various considerations for municipalities exploring these options.  Electric heat pumps are presented as the most affordable, lowest-carbon way to deliver home heating and cooling. They reduce energy costs because they operate much more efficiently than AC or gas heating. And installing a heat pump is one of the first, most important steps you can take to reduce carbon by getting gas heating out of a building.

What policymakers need to know is that retrofit project planning takes time, and the details matter. 

If every multi-unit residential building had to meet a maximum temperature target tomorrow, the outcomes could be unfair, or worse. Owners wouldn’t have the lead time they need to turn over equipment in line with their own capital plans (for example when a boiler reaches end of life) and would face significant unplanned capital costs. That’s where legitimate concerns about costs being passed to tenants, or “renovictions” come up. 

Or, if low-carbon considerations aren’t integrated in planning, the sudden surge in standard cooling systems would strain the electricity grid, drive up emissions for decades, and would be more expensive in the long term, putting future tenant affordability at risk. 

I’ve seen firsthand how heat pumps have been transformative solutions for tenants and building owners. In partnership with Toronto Community Housing, we’ve installed heat pumps in over 300 homes across the city. What residents have appreciated the most has been their ability to access more consistent, efficient cooling in their living spaces. The results have been particularly positive in seniors’ buildings, for children, and for people with heat aggravated illnesses or respiratory problems. 

In 2020, we completed a heat pump retrofit project in a Toronto Community Housing townhouse complex in the east end, where one resident’s feedback stands out. She had young children, and one had asthma. The retrofit involved introducing cooling in the majority of the unit, which for her family’s health and quality of life was a gamechanger. 

However, we’ve seen unintended burdens for tenants in a few small examples. In one private apartment retrofit, the building owners restricted use of cooling from the new heat pumps until tenant turnover, or for tenants who opted in to pay extra. It was a lost opportunity to protect people from the health impacts of extreme heat, and the best way to build resentment around a building retrofit that everyone should be able to celebrate and benefit from. 

The best bylaws will deliver fairness, affordability, and emission reductions to tenants and owners alike by:

• Protecting residents with a maximum indoor temperature of 26°C;
• Factoring in building owners’ equipment replacement cycles; and
• Making sure buildings are not locked into expensive, high-emitting gas systems.

I believe that we can avoid unintended consequences like restrictive practices, or prohibitively higher rents or utility costs for tenants. With fairness and planning, maximum temperature bylaws can be a win for everyone.