Residents in Toronto Community Housing complexes are forbidden from having window air conditioning systems as summer temperatures climb.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
It has been two sweltering summers since the Ontario Progressive Conservatives passed a bill that is supposed to allow tenants to install air conditioning in their living spaces, but that right has not yet been enacted into law.
Tenant advocates and opposition politicians are raising concerns about the legislation’s delayed enactment, and say the bill doesn’t go far enough to help tenants struggling with extreme heat.
The proposal, Bill 97, amends several pieces of legislation including a portion of the Residential Tenancies Act pertaining to installing air conditioning units. Once enacted, tenants will be allowed to install a window or a portable air conditioning unit, unless expressly prohibited by landlords. The government has not yet proclaimed the legislation, meaning it hasn’t taken effect, and they won’t say when they will do that.
The bill was tabled in April, 2023, a year after the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) warned that landlords who deny tenants air conditioning could be subject to a human rights complaint. The OHRC called on the provincial government to implement a temperature maximum bylaw and mandate air conditioning as a vital service, similar to heat in the winter.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Municipal Affairs and Housing minister turned down the Globe’s request for an interview, and said in a statement that timing for proclamation of the law has not been determined.
NDP housing critic Jessica Bell said she is concerned that the government has refused to turn the legislation, which received Royal Assent in June, into an enforceable law.
“We’re going through another record-breaking summer and tenants are suffering in their apartments when they shouldn’t be,” Ms. Bell said.
She added that while the bill is a step forward to ensuring tenants are cool during the summer, in her view, it doesn’t go far enough because the tenant is forced to pay for any excess electrical charges, in addition to high rental costs.
Liberal MPP Adil Shamji said the bill could have done more to make air conditioning widely available. Still, he said it’s an important start with fair provisions to ensure additional costs associated with air conditioning units are dealt with in a fair way between landlords and tenants.
“It strikes me as simply a matter of fairness, of equity and of dignity that people should be able to have access to air conditioning,” Mr. Shamji said.
Jacqueline Wilson, a lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, said the bill offers a solution to the issue of some landlords preventing tenants from buying and installing air conditioning units, but she said it puts the full cost of climate adaptation on tenants.
“Climate change is unfair. Low-income tenants are not responsible for the worst impacts of the climate crisis and should not be burdened with paying for the impacts of it,” Ms. Wilson said.
Rosalea Thompson, a staff lawyer with Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, said the full legal implications of the bill are not yet clear. She said some of the conditions could have adverse effects for tenants, and in some cases could lead to unfair rent increases.
Tenants must notify their landlord in writing before installing air conditioning, she said, and provide information about the efficiency and anticipated usage of the unit they’re installing. It continues to be the tenant’s responsibility to make sure the air conditioning unit has been installed in accordance with safety and security bylaws.
“For some landlord-tenant situations, this may increase clarity. But, in cases where leases are silent with respect to air conditioning or rental increases based on the provisional electricity, the amended provision might actually weaken tenants’ rights,” Ms. Thompson explained.
Ms. Thompson said it’s her organization’s view that the landlord is responsible for maintaining a residential unit in a habitable state under the provincial Tenancies Act.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission declined to comment.