TORONTO | Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat peoples (July 2, 2026) - The heat wave that has descended on the Toronto area underscores the importance of protecting communities from extreme heat while also cutting emissions and fossil fuels.
Environment Canada has issued a warning for a long duration heat wave in Southern Ontario, right at the tail end of a deadly heat wave in Europe that’s already estimated to have killed 1300 people.
“Heat waves are deadly. The science is clear that climate change — caused mostly by the burning of natural gas, gasoline, and other fossil fuels — is making the planet hotter,” says How-Sen Chong, Climate Campaigner at Toronto Environmental Alliance.
Last week, Toronto Environmental Alliance, along with tenants, doctors, community voices, and more — successfully called on Toronto City Council to speed up work on a bylaw to cap indoor temperatures in rental units, expected to come before next summer. This would be a transformative step to complement the City’s air conditioner program that has been providing indoor cooling to vulnerable residents like seniors and families with young children for the past two years.
“Like so many communities around the world, Toronto was not built for the climate we’re experiencing,” says Chong. “In addition to a maximum indoor temperature bylaw to protect tenants, all governments need to work together to shift the design of our communities and our buildings to manage extreme heat and flooding. While our provincial government is destroying the very same building standards meant to protect us from climate change, Torontonians are feeling the impact of these bad decisions.”
Climate change will continue to make heat waves hotter still unless we end the use of fossil fuels like natural gas and gasoline.
“The science is clear that fossil fuels are fueling heatwaves, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events,” says Chong. “The increase of extreme heat underlines the need to quickly move away from fossil fuels like natural gas and gasoline. Instead, we should be moving to solar, wind, and battery power which are all cleaner, more affordable, more resilient, and much faster to build than giant gas or nuclear plants.
“This is yet another one of a series of un-natural disasters. People need to be protected from climate change. And we need to do that while also ending the use of fossil fuels.”
For more, information, contact:
Jessica Gordon, Communications Manager, Toronto Environmental Alliance
Email: [email protected]