The City of Toronto’s top doctor says officials have “activated all heat emergency measures” as the city swelters under a prolonged spell of extremely high temperatures.
Dr. Michelle Murti, Toronto’s medical officer of health, said an orange warning for extreme heat has the city working in overdrive to try to keep residents cool.
“Environment Canada is already predicting that because of the severity and duration of this heat alert, we are expecting health impacts because of this ongoing heat they were experiencing over several days,” she told Global News.
“Whenever we have multiple days of heat alerts, that really is taxing on the body.”
The warning for Toronto predicts temperatures between 31 and 34 C, rising as high as 37 C in some areas. Humidity will increase how hot it actually feels, with Wednesday and Thursday expected to be the hottest days this week.
Toronto’s heat relief strategy means public pools are open longer, along with wading pools and increased access to a range of air-conditioned public spaces like community centres and libraries.
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The elderly and extremely young, as well as those without housing, are at the highest risk.
“As to those that are on the street, we are giving out bottled water; these outreach workers are trying to bring them to the cooling centres,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said on Tuesday.
Facing criticism for closing some of its cooling centres early, the City of Toronto has set up a 24-hour cooling centre at 136 Spadina Rd. and has added roughly 100 extra spaces in its shelters.
Lorraine Lam, of the Shelter and Justice Network, said many of the city’s attempts to cool people down simply aren’t applicable to its most vulnerable residents.
“They are not going to a swimming pool to cool down,” she said. “Also, can you just imagine the frenzy that might happen if an unhoused person showed up at a splash pad? We just know that that’s not realistic.”
She said the city must do more to advertise its solutions.
“Before 2020, when the city used to have 24-hour cooling spaces across the city, they had a program where people could access transit for free to get to the places they needed to go. They took that away.”
Still, Murti is pushing the city’s facilities, asking everyone to watch for signs of heat exhaustion and use public cooling spaces if they need.
“We have ongoing services that are available all the time and then during periods like this, when a heat alert is activated, we will have extended hours for things like pools and wading pools, all of our civic centers are open for drop-in,” she explained.
If the city is “baking under an Orange Warning” , maybe try a Blue Warning instead .Blue is a much cooler color,it’s kind of cold but refreshing.
What ever you do,don’t go with a Red Warning. Way too hot !
This is ridiculous. An Orange warning for common summertime temperatures.
You may wonder when Canadians became such pussies? I propose it was we voted Mr Socks in for the first time.