Obstacles to Toronto’s long-promised maximum heat bylaw abound, and its emergence has been deferred for yet another year. But environmental advocates are cautiously optimistic that the law will be in place this time next year, citing newfound political will to finally get the job done. 

Back in December, Mayor Olivia Chow vowed to have a maximum heat bylaw on the books by May, requiring landlords to prevent rental accommodations from overheating. But it was early July by the time council asked staff to produce a draft bylaw, setting a June 2027 deadline for that draft.

The delay is a measure of just how difficult it is to craft, and pass, such a regulation, reports the Toronto Star. But environmental advocates are heartened by their sense that the political will to bring the maximum heat law to life finally exists and will stay the course.

The expense involved in retrofitting Toronto’s considerable stock of aging high-rise apartments is one longstanding obstacle to getting a maximum heat bylaw on the books in Toronto.

“Two-thirds of Toronto apartments are in high rises five storeys or higher,” writes the Star, citing a city study. “Many buildings are more than 50 years old, and are heated by natural gas rather than electricity.”

Tenant fears of steep rent increases when landlords pass on the costs of retrofits and/or air conditioning are another obstacle. Even as many tenants long for such a bylaw, desperate for protection from increasingly unbearable summer heat and poor air quality, they worry that heat protection will come at the cost of not being able to afford to live in their homes.

They have “good reason to worry,” writes the Star. Some 80% of landlords said they would try to shift the burden of upgrades and air conditioning onto their tenants, according to an Environics Research consultation conducted on behalf of the city last year.

The need for such a law is clear, however. Extreme heat health impacts are among Toronto’s “most urgent climate hazards,” the Star writes.

And while Toronto has had heat-relief strategies in place for years, measures like drop-in cooling centres do nothing to protect isolated people, like seniors with chronic conditions or others with special needs that leave them no other option but to shelter in place.

As awareness grows of the profound dangers of extreme heat exposure, both in Toronto and elsewhere, so is the political will to make a maximum heat bylaw a reality.

“It’s just become more obvious how urgent this is, so that’s put a literal fire under them to work more quickly,” Sarah Buchanan, campaigns director for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, told the Star.