Press Release: Monday, May 11, 2026

Victoria Tenants Union Calls For City-Wide Heat Protection Bylaw

The Victoria Tenants Union (VicTU) is supporting a new motion being introduced this week in the council chamber that could help protect tenants from high indoor summer temperatures.

The motion, which will be introduced to council on Thursday, May 14th, directs staff to explore ways that City can ensure that landlords cannot prohibit tenants from installing cooling equipment such as air conditioning, and that all rental units include at least one room that can be kept from exceeding 26 degrees Celsius. The VicTU was consulted in the drafting of the motion.

This follows on the heels of a similar bylaw passed in New Westminster last month – the first of its kind in Canada – that requires landlords to provide tenants of multi-family rental buildings with one room that does not exceed 26 Celsius between 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM.

The VicTU’s support for any bylaw resulting from the motion is contingent on it placing the onus on landlords to install and pay for the necessary cooling systems, on its effective enforcement, and on efforts to ensure that it does not translate into evictions or above-guideline rent increases.

“Rents are already far too high,” said Harland Bird, spokesperson for the VicTU. “The right to collect that rent should at the very least require landlords to provide tenants with living spaces that are actually livable.”

“This motion also further underscores how important it is for the Province to close the two major rent control loopholes by instituting vacancy control to disincentivze landlords from evicting long-term tenants paying below market rates under cover of renovations to install cooling systems, and by ending additional rent increases for capital expenditures, which allow above-guideline rent increases to pass on repair and maintenance expenses to tenants,” said Bird.

Heat protections for tenants are urgently needed, and they have been since at least 2021 when 619 people in BC died during a heat dome event, including 24 in Greater Victoria, with most of these deaths occurring in homes without adequate cooling systems according to the Chief Coroner. The fact that daily temperature records were broken in seven communities across Vancouver Island last week only further emphasizes the urgent need for such heat protection.

“The deadly 2021 heat dome was five years ago now, and even back then we should have been protecting renters from the entirely predictable effects of climate change” said Bird. “It is well past time for a heat protection bylaw for Victoria tenants.”

The Chief Coroner also noted that many of the 2021 deaths occurred in areas with few trees and large buildings with high density. Victoria is currently undergoing major densification as a result of the Official Community Plan (OCP) that was passed last year by the sitting council. The VicTU opposed the OCP due to its weak tenant protections and developer-friendly provisions.