New Westminster's heat response: “People’s lives are at stake”

As New West residents grapple with the first heatwave of the summer of 2024, city council is taking steps it hopes will lead to cooler rental units.

At its July 8 meeting, council received an update about work staff have been doing to help community members stay cool during extreme heat events. The staff report was in response to an August 2023 council motion that directed staff to explore the tools available for adopting a bylaw requiring rental units to have cooling equipment or at least one room that doesn’t exceed 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit).

On Monday, council unanimously supported a recommendation to have staff to do a vulnerable building stock assessment and to bring forward recommendations from that assessment that relate to cooling existing residential buildings. Staff anticipate this work will take between six months and one year to complete.

According to the report, staff will begin research in the fall into a vulnerable building stock assessment project that would identify existing rental buildings with heath vulnerability to tenants.

The city will identify a building owner willing to partner with the city on a pilot project to explore how to make cooling upgrades. This work is intended to provide an understanding of the viable option for cooling, challenges and opportunities in implementation, estimated costs, and required supports for tenants during renovations.

“We do know that housing affordability is connected to these older buildings that we have,” said Coun. Nadine Nakagawa. “We don't want to lose sight of that, that those buildings – it’s not affordable housing in the definition of it, but it serves as affordable housing.”

Council also unanimously agreed to direct staff to write to the province advocating that it prioritizes work on its Existing Buildings Renewal Strategy. That provincial strategy seeks to make buildings more energy and water efficient and safer during events like earthquakes, wildfires heat waves, droughts and floods.

As part of that recommendation, the city will also identify senior government funding sources that support rapid implementation of new cooling requirements, considering the related impacts of heat waves and wildfire smoke on vulnerable residents.

New territory

In August 2023, councillors Nakagawa and Tasha Henderson put forward a motion about cooling equipment in rental units.

Nakagawa said she’s been contacted by people across Canada about this initiative.

“I know that this is new territory for municipalities to be considering this. … People are very interested in this because it is a life safety issue at the end of the day,” she said.

At Monday’s meeting, Nakagawa proposed an additional motion for council’s consideration: that staff bring forward a strategy, with identified resources, to move forward a bylaw for cooling in existing rental buildings.

Nakagawa said the goal is for the province to take action on this work because it’s not just a New West issue, but she believes the city should move forward on that front. She noted that New Westminster was “deeply impacted” by heat dome in 2021.

“People's lives are at stake; I don't think there's anything more pressing than that. If we don't think housing is a human right, we at least know it's an essential need. And the fact that people were dying in their home, I don't think is acceptable to any of us,” she said. “So, I want to explore this and see what creative solutions we can come up with for a huge swath of our community who needs this desperately.”

A provincial review of heat-related deaths in B.C. in the summer of 2021 stated that 33 people in New Westminster died as a result of the extreme heat. New West had the fourth highest number of heat-related deaths in B.C., but the highest number of deaths per capita (41.8 per 100,000).

Coun. Daniel Fontaine supported the two staff recommendations but opposed Nakagawa’s motion directing staff to develop a strategy related to a cooling bylaw in rental units. He said it would add to the workload of staff who have indicated they’re already run off their feet with work to do.

“If this is approved, we're going to throw a whole bunch of work at them that they're going to have to do,” he said. “And this may all be for naught if the province …  addresses this issue in a way that it should.”

Fontaine put forward an amendment to Nakagawa’s motion, which stated that staff be asked to bring forward a strategy for a cooling bylaw in existing rental buildings, only after the City of New Westminster has had a formal dialogue with the province to confirm what they're doing on that front.

Council voted 3-2 against Fontaine’s amendment, which was supported by his fellow New West Progressives colleague Coun. Paul Minhas.

In a 3-2 vote, council supported Nakagawa’s motion. Mayor Patrick Johnstone and Coun. Ruby Campbell, who are members of Community First New West, supported the motion, while the two New West Progressive councillors were opposed.

“The work to mitigate climate emergency crisis, in terms of the cooling work that staff team have been doing and in terms of the motion that's been added here, yes, it's a lot of work but it's also critical work and it's life-saving work,” Campbell said. “This is not work that is discretionary; it's important work. … It is critical work, and we can't wait for this to happen any longer.”

Fontaine said he does not dispute the fact this is important work but wanted council to get into “reality mode” about the staffing impacts.

“As was noted, this is a provincial issue,” he said. “This is something that should be dealt with provincially, and the province may be dealing with it.”

What happens next?

The July 8 staff report stated that there could be staffing and financial impacts associated with proceeding with specific options identified in council’s 2023 motion on cooling equipment in rental units. It said this could include reallocating work for the crisis response pilot project, development approvals, building permits, climate response and social planning.

The Record has confirmed with city hall that approval of Nakagawa’s motion does not trigger reallocations of staff at this time.

“Based on Councillor Nakagawa’s motion, we would be coming back with a workplan that would outline the resources and costs to do the work,” said Jackie Teed, the city’s director of planning and development. “While it will take staff time to prepare this more detailed proposal, the actual work proceeding in relation to the third motion will only begin should council then approve that workplan.”

In the July 8 report, staff outlined actions being taking by the City of New Westminster to support cooling needs during extreme heat events. These initiatives include:

• distributing common room air condition units to buildings with a high percentage of at-risk and low-come residents
• establishing and mapping citywide indoor cooling venues and “cool-off features” such as misting stations and shaded areas
• expanding communications about extreme heat events.