Item - 2015.HL5.5

The Board of Health:

1.  Requested the Medical Officer of Health to collaborate with the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, the Chief Executive Officer,Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the City Solicitor and community stakeholders, including apartment property owners and tenants, to assess the feasibility of:

a.  setting mandatory requirements, for existing multi-unit residential buildings without active cooling in each unit, to provide on-site cooling centre(s) inside and/or outside of the building that meet minimum requirements including capacity, physical features of the space and tenant notification;

b.  establishing a temperature related threshold beyond which action must be taken by building owners/property managers to provide access to the on-site cooling centre(s); and

c.  requiring multi-unit residential building owners and/or property managers to maintain a list of vulnerable residents who would require assistance getting to the cooling unit.

2.  Requested the Medical Officer of Health to collaborate with the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, City Building and the Chief Corporate Officer, to develop and provide guidance to owners, property managers, operators and tenants of existing multi-unit residential buildings on leading practices to maximize passive cooling and minimize the need for air conditioning.

3.  Requested the Medical Officer of Health to collaborate with the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building to request that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing consider amendments to the Ontario Building Code to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat in multi-unit residential buildings, including setting requirements for new multi-unit residential buildings to incorporate equipment or building features that provide the capacity (active or passive) to cool individual residential units.

4.  Requested the Medical Officer of Health to collaborate with the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to prepare a joint report to the Board of Health and the Tenant Issues Committee on whether a maximum temperature for apartment units is needed, and if so, to identify an appropriate temperature.

The purpose of this report is to identify potential strategies to reduce health risk to vulnerable populations from exposure to extreme heat in multi-unit residential buildings.  The populations that are most vulnerable to extreme heat are young children, the elderly, those with pre-existing illnesses and those who are socially isolated.

This report outlines options to increase access to cooling during extreme heat for tenants of apartment buildings that do not have air conditioning.  The long-term goal is to have safe, comfortable temperatures in all apartment building units.  Given the substantial barriers to achieving this in the short term, Toronto Public Health (TPH) recommends an interim strategy of ensuring tenants have access to cooling on-site at their building.  In the short term, options considered potentially feasible include requiring on-site cooling centres for existing multi-unit residential buildings and encouraging building retrofits that enhance cooling.  TPH recommends consultation with tenants, landlords and other stakeholders to investigate the feasibility of the recommended strategies.