While city staff work on a maximum heat bylaw, councillors deferred paying for air conditioners.<\/p>\n
The official start to summer is still weeks away, and it’s already very hot in Taylor Korolenchuk’s Hamilton apartment.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old lives with his father in an older, seven-storey building in Stoney Creek without air conditioning.<\/p>\n
Korolenchuk says he has nerve issues that are made worse by hot weather, but the two of them struggle to pay the heftier utility bills that come with running air conditioners.<\/p>\n
“My dad would purposely not put the [air conditioners] on so he can save on hydro but in these heat waves, you end up sweltering,” he told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday, the second of two days hovering around 27 C. With the humidity, the days felt above 30 C.<\/p>\n
Korolenchuk’s room is above the building’s laundry room, making it even warmer. “Even when it’s 20 [degrees Celsius] out, my room gets to 29.”<\/p>\n
He’s eager to see the city’s maximum temperature bylaw move forward, after council approved it in concept last year<\/a>. It would require landlords to ensure units don’t exceed a specified temperature.<\/p>\n A draft of what the new law could look like is expected before council later in June.<\/p>\n “It’s kind of a necessity now with the temperature rising quickly,” said Korolenchuk, noting he’d like their home to be a place of refuge for his dad, who works in a hot metal foundry, instead of more of the same on days like Hamilton has experienced this week.<\/p>\n “Normally the heat waves don’t start until later.”<\/p>\n While councillors wait to see city staff’s draft of the new bylaw, they have deferred a proposal that would have helped low-income residents buy air conditioners to help them get through this summer in the meantime.<\/p>\n At a council meeting May 8, Mayor Andrea Horwath led a majority of councillors in deferring an amendment from Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch that would have expanded access to a $350 air-conditioning grant from 50 households to 200.<\/p>\n Currently, people on social assistance with certain medical conditions are eligible for the $350 subsidy through Ontario Works. Kroetsch had proposed to make something similar available to all low-income households with a resident dealing with a severe medical condition that makes them vulnerable to heat.<\/p>\nCouncil defers decision over expanding AC grant<\/h4>\n