As Toronto renters face another hot summer, advocates are urging the city to implement a maximum indoor temperature standard for apartments. Residents like Monique Gordon experience dangerously high indoor temperatures, which pose health risks, especially for vulnerable individuals. Gordon, chair of ACORN's Etobicoke chapter, struggles with heat in her unit, exacerbating her respiratory condition. Although city officials have previously hesitated due to financial and technical challenges, they are now exploring regulations to protect tenants from extreme indoor temperatures, as community groups push for action.
Gordon, like many tenants across Toronto, is bracing for yet another hotter-than-usual summer, while the city continues looking into implementing a maximum indoor temperature standard for apartments.
In June 2023, city council voted in favour of exploring the feasibility of a maximum temperature standard as a way to ensure no residential unit becomes dangerously hot.
"Thank God, I don't have any asthma because I don't think I'd be able to make it through with the heat," Gordon told CBC Toronto.
Toronto Heat Safety, a coalition of tenant advocacy groups, health experts and environmental organizations, came together last year to demand that the city establish a 26 C maximum indoor temperature standard.
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