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Heat Safety Coalition Urges City Council to Advance Maximum Indoor Temperature Standard for Rental Housing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Electric fan next to bed with sunshine coming through the window.

PRESS RELEASE

June 23, 2026, TORONTO |  Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – As extreme heat becomes more frequent, severe, and deadly, a coalition of doctors, tenants, seniors, environmentalists, community service providers, and legal experts is calling for the City of Toronto to advance important work towards a maximum temperature bylaw for renters. 

At its June 24 meeting, City Council will consider a report to advance work toward a bylaw establishing a maximum indoor temperature of 26°C for rental units. The coalition was joined at a City Hall press conference today by Councillor Alejandra Bravo, who has committed to advancing a plan for a strong framework. This is a critical step in protecting Toronto tenants as temperatures rise. 

“Extreme heat is a public health emergency,” says Dr. Samantha Green, Toronto family physician and President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). “During the BC heat dome, more than 600 people died of the heat–98% in sweltering conditions in their own homes. In Toronto, we expect extreme heat days to triple over the coming decades. Patchwork programs like the Heat Relief Network don’t protect the most vulnerable. We know that any delay in enacting a maximum indoor temperature by-law will cost lives. The City must start work on this now.”

Toronto’s Heat Safety Coalition will be working alongside Councillor Alejandra Bravo to advance this bylaw to the next stage of work in close collaboration with impacted tenants, seniors, health experts, and others at risk from escalating indoor temperatures. 

“People without access to cooling are baking in their apartments”, says Marcia Stone, Chair, Weston ACORN Chapter. “We can’t just open our windows and cool off at night. People’s lives are at stake! That’s why we’ve been fighting for a maximum temperature bylaw for years. Both New Westminster and New York City have voted to create this protection. Now it’s Toronto’s turn.” 

“Right now, tenants are stuck between a rock and a hard place thanks in large part to the provincial government,” says Yaroslava Montenegro, Executive Director, Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA). “We are suffering sweltering conditions in our homes that risk our health and safety, and yet are being priced out of our homes thanks to AGIs. We are being overcharged to keep a roof over our heads and risk our lives in the extreme heat. This is an egregious and impossible position. Tenants deserve to live in dignity, and not risk their lives at the hands of institutions that benefit landlords, developers and the owning class. We make an urgent call for City Council to adopt a Maximum Heat By-law to enable tenant health and safety in the midst of ongoing climate change, and we call on the provincial government to eliminate AGIs in their entirety.”

“Heat is already causing excess deaths among Toronto seniors,” says Harper Jean Tobin, Community Resilience Project Director at The 519. “In our city today, cooling is no more a luxury than heat. As a community centre, we hear regularly about the impacts. Our human rights obligations demand that a structure we call a home give protection from the elements that is adequate to sustain life and health. We encourage our City partners to take action on a plan to realize those rights.”

Toronto already requires landlords to maintain minimum indoor temperatures during the winter. As climate change drives longer and more severe heat waves, residents deserve the same protection from dangerous indoor heat in the summer.

The Toronto Heat Safety Coalition calls on all members of Toronto City Council to protect tenant lives by supporting a strong framework and directing staff to move quickly toward a maximum indoor temperature bylaw. This means working closely with City staff, impacted stakeholders, and public health experts through the summer and into the next Council term. Every summer of delay leaves more Torontonians exposed to preventable health risks.

Media contacts:

Sarah Buchanan 
Campaigns Director | Toronto Environmental Alliance
(647) 835-8203
sarah@torontoenvironment.org 

Reykia Fick 
Communications Director | Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
647-762-9168
media@cape.ca 

Judy Duncan 
Head Organizer | ACORN Canada
416 996 6401
canadaacorn@acorncanada.org 

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Toronto Heat Safety Coalition members:

ACORN, Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE), Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), ARCH Disability Centre (ARCH), Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW), the 519, Low-Income Energy Network (LIEN), Seniors for Climate Action Now! – Toronto (SCAN), and Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA)

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