How does New West plan to address cooling in rental buildings?

New Westminster – which had the fourth highest number of deaths of all B.C. communities in the 2021 heat dome – is taking action to require cooling in existing rental buildings.

At its Jan. 13 meeting, city council unanimously supported a recommendation directing staff to proceed with the work needed to bring forward bylaws and policies that are needed to require cooling in existing rental buildings. It’s expected the information would be presented to council for its consideration by the end of May 2025.

The action comes in response to a July 2024 council motion directing staff to advance the vulnerable building stock assessment and bring forward recommendations related to cooling existing residential buildings.

“The assessment will incorporate broad engagement with interest holders, economic analysis, and a pilot project to trial potential methods for achieving cooling in existing buildings; it is anticipated that the assessment will take six months, with a pilot being undertaken through the following one year,” said the staff report. “In the meantime, requiring cooling opportunities in existing rental buildings is a priority, and the city wishes to have regulations in place more quickly.”

In a Jan. 13 report, staff recommended a “streamlined” approach to bringing forward polices and bylaws that would be necessary to require cooling in existing buildings. This work would include about $40,000 to $60,000 from the planning and development department’s 2025 budget for external consultants.

In 2021, the BC Coroners Service released data showing that 526 heat-related deaths were reported in the province during the June 25 to July 1 heat event, including 28 in New West. Only the province’s three most populated cities reported more deaths – Vancouver (99), Surrey (67) and Burnaby (63).

During the 2021 heat dome, some B.C. communities saw temperatures of 40 to nearly 50 degrees. A heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air.

In July 2023, councillors Nadine Nakagawa and Tasha Henderson presented council with a notice of motion related to cooling equipment in rental units. That motion, approved at a meeting the following month, directed staff to explore the tools available for the city to adopt a bylaw that requires rental units to have cooling equipment, or passive means, that prevents at least one room of the unit from exceeding the standard recommendation of 26 C (79 F and to have the city write to the Minister of Housing about the issue.

Nakagawa thanked staff for the report and “strongly” supported the staff recommendation in the Jan. 13 report.

“I think this is really important,” she said. “We know that members of our community died in the heat dome, and we need to prevent that from happening. We know that it’s a matter of time before we have another one.”

Nakagawa said the City of Port Moody recently put requirements for cooling for rental units into its standards of maintenance bylaw. She said that is an “interesting idea” and something New Westminster may want to consider.

Henderson thanked staff for the work that’s being done to address potential bylaw or policy changes regarding the cooling of existing buildings – and for compiling a list of other mitigation actions being done by the city.

“Sometimes the long-term solutions don't necessarily come as quickly as we need them to, so it is important that we are providing some shorter term impacts and supports for people in the community. So, I really appreciate …  seeing that all together,” she said. “I think that this could be precedent setting for the region. This is really exciting and important work.”

Mayor Patrick Johnstone said the heat dome event was a “traumatic event” for the city. He said the city was unsure at that time how it was going to find approaches to address that “unprecedented” weather event in the city.

“I’m just impressed that so many different departments of the city have come together and found ways that they can contribute, both in a short-term solution and a long-term solution to addressing what will surely be future heat domes and future heat waves that are going to be potentially doing this for the community,” he said. “So, I just really appreciate the depth of work that took place here, and I hope this will complement it.”

Johnstone said he hopes the province will step in and take more leadership on this issue.

“But lacking that, I think it's important that we do what we can locally, recognizing that New Westminster was the most impacted city through the heat dome,” he said. “I think it's incumbent on us to do this. So, I really appreciate it.”

Cooling efforts

A staff report outlined some of the work that’s being done to support cooling efforts in New Westminster. This includes:

• Distributing common room air conditioning units to buildings with a high percentage of at-risk and low-income residents.
• Exploring partnerships with Praxis Spinal Cord Institute to distribute wearable cooling technologies to people with disabilities who are susceptible to extreme heat.
• Providing support through Energy Save New West to help community members navigate and apply for incentive programs for residential cooling.
• Delivering four do-it-yourself air cleaner workshops in 2024 and providing heat preparedness messaging and wildfire smoke safety to seniors and newcomers.
• Establishing and mapping citywide cooling venues and cool-off features, such as drinking fountains, misting stations, shaded areas, etc.
• Working to plant 8,500 new trees on city property by 2030, with priority given to “high-risk areas” where indicators of social vulnerability overlap with a low tree canopy cover.
• Expanding communications/outreach about preparation for, safety, and connection during extreme heat events.
• Preparing multilingual materials/messaging and delivering multilingual community workshops.
• Operationalizing a phone messaging system to share information on extreme heat preparation and resources.
• Working with the faith-based and non-profit sector to better address the needs of the unhoused during extreme heat events, including people who are living with mental health and substance use issues.
• Initiating a vulnerable building stock assessment research phase.
• Conducting preliminary research into approaches available to move forward a bylaw for cooling in existing rental buildings.