Heat Relief Services (2018.HL29.2)

In Toronto, there are many locations that provide a space for people to seek relief from the heat, including over 250 City facilities, such as community centres and libraries, pools, and a network of shelters and drop-in services. This past summer, many of these facilities were actively promoted as part of the Heat Relief Network. To put the City in a stronger position to protect residents from extreme heat, the City needs a coordinated proactive response from a City-wide, strategic, and operational perspective. The forthcoming Resilience Strategy will offer an opportunity for the impact of hot weather to be considered systematically along with other extreme weather events. A continued focus on enhancing communication and increasing access to the many cool spaces that already exist across the City is needed to further build community resilience to extreme heat. This approach is in keeping with those in other major North American cities that maximize access to cooling by promoting a broad range of publicly accessible air conditioned spaces and placing emphasis on effectively communicating their availability. To accomplish this, a work group is recommended to coordinate the strategies that have been shown to be effective, such as a media campaign that promotes "neighbour checking"; web-based information; a process for adding organizations to the Network; and supporting City Divisions to implement heat relief initiatives as part of their mandates.

City Council request the Deputy City Manager, Corporate Services, in collaboration with Toronto Public Health, to lead an interim work group to coordinate the implementation of heat relief strategies for 2019 and, as part of this interim work group, to develop a strategy for dealing with units that are dangerous from a heat perspective. Board Decision Advice and Other Information The Board of Health: 1. Forwarded the report (November 14, 2018) from the Medical Officer of Health to the City of Toronto's Resilience Office as input to the upcoming Resilience Strategy for the City of Toronto.