A week ago, Abi Martin was cooking gnocchi in her ninth floor Beltline apartment when she says the temperature inside climbed above 30 C — warmer than it was outside.

Martin says the extreme heat makes her dizzy and unsteady on her feet. She says she’s fainted during previous warm spells in Calgary and doesn’t think a heat wave should put her life in danger.

Martin is a volunteer board member with Acorn, a housing advocacy group that is calling on Calgary city council to adopt a maximum temperature bylaw for older rental apartments that don’t have cooling systems.

“Just because we’re tenants doesn’t mean that we deserve to cook to death in our own suites,” Martin said outside her 16-storey, decades-old apartment building.

Temperature cap, free air conditioners

Acorn wants the indoor temperature in at least one room in a rental suite capped at 26 C. It also wants the city to provide free portable air conditioning units for low-income tenants until landlords come into compliance with the new rules.

“It might increase costs, but at the end of the day we either pay now or pay later,” said Martin. “People’s lives are on the line, costs be damned.”

“This is very much an emerging public health concern,” agreed Jared Blustein, the executive director of the Calgary Climate Hub, a non-profit that supports Calgarians to take action on climate-related issues.

“This is not a partisan issue, but something we need to do to increase the resilience of all Calgarians.”

Deadly heat dome prompted action

Acorn is modelling the proposed Calgary bylaw after a similar one that passed in New Westminster, B.C., in March.

In 2021, the city of 90,000 was hit hard by a heat dome that descended over western Canada for several days in late June and early July. It pushed temperatures past 40 C in many parts of British Columbia. More than 600 people died across the province; 33 of those fatalities were in New Westminster.

In Alberta, an estimated 66 people died during the weeklong heat event. Calgary’s temperature climbed to 36.3 C, the second highest on record.

WATCH | Housing, justice advocates push for indoor temperature cap:

According to New Westminster’s bylaw, temperature in at least one room in a rental unit must be held at or below 26 C between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Landlords who fail to maintain a safe indoor temperature could face a penalty of up to $750.

The city also bans landlords from preventing or prohibiting tenants from using a portable cooling device.

Coun. Nadine Nakagawa says while council unanimously approved the bylaw, it has not yet been adopted into law. She says the pause is giving the city time to work with landlords before the rules become law.

“If we’re talking about installing a heat pump, that might be a bigger upfront cost. Things like air conditioners per unit might be cheaper. Things like shading and awnings may be even cheaper,” she said.

“It’s a responsibility of the building owners to ensure that their units are livable and that their tenants aren’t going to die during the climate events that we know are coming.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada forecasts that 2026 will likely be among the four hottest years on record.

Calgary mayor worries about costs

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas says he’s open to the idea of a maximum temperature bylaw, but he worries the extra costs could impact housing affordability.

“My concern around this would be if implementing this meant that we had a significant reduction in the housing available that could potentially put us into a much more, frankly, dangerous situation for Calgarians who are currently facing housing precariousness,” said Farkas.

The Canadian Environmental Law Association says the mayor’s response is disappointing. The group, which advocates for environmental protections, says this issue needs to be looked at as a public health crisis.

“The reason for these standards is that people need to live in homes that are livable, that are safe. It can’t be that our standards are stuck in the past so that people are actually dying or getting really sick in their homes. That can’t be the baseline that we maintain,” said Jacqueline Wilson, a lawyer with the association.

Martin is not looking forward to the summer, which forecasters predict will be warmer than usual.

“I have fainted before … if I can’t stand, I can’t work, I can’t clean houses, I can’t do much of anything,” she said as her ceiling fan was spinning overhead.