A Winnipeg community activist says it’s time for the city to update its standards for property owners, as climate change ushers in longer and more intense heat waves.
Sel Burrows calls himself fortunate to run air conditioning during this mid-summer heat.
A necessary cool living space, he says, should be a right shared by all Winnipeggers, but one that isn’t outlined in the city’s neighbourhood liveability bylaw.
“It has a page and a half on maintaining heating and zero on maintaining cold in the summer,” Burrows, who founded the Point Powerline, told Global News on Monday.
The bylaw states residential building owners must provide a heating system with temperatures of at least 21 degrees during the day and 18 degrees at night.
Burrows wants to see something similar implemented for maximum temperatures as global warming worsens, despite applauding it as one of the best bylaws in North America — one that also includes rules surrounding ventilation and windows.
Winnipeg’s annual number of 30-plus degree days could double in just two or three decades, University of Winnipeg professor Danny Blair said.
“By the end of the century, Winnipeg may have 50 days in an average summer … and places all across the Prairies would have those kind of numbers in an average summer, which is the kind of summers that you would see maybe in Kansas or Oklahoma right now.”
It’s something Blair says will require preparation.
“In Manitoba, we have one of the highest rates of air conditioning use in our homes and buildings, but it’s going to become absolutely essential in the future because once you get into the into the high thirties, in particular, your body just can’t cool itself down easily,” said Blair, who also serves as the co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre.
On top of safety, climate change is an affordability issue that will hit low-income Winnipeggers the most, Burrows said.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson said the city isn’t currently considering changes to the bylaw regarding maximum temperatures.
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