Brampton council and senior staff are working on a bylaw to address apartment-dwelling residents’ concerns, after unseasonably warm weather left many sweltering in heated apartments buildings last fall.

The city’s existing bylaw requires landlords of apartment buildings to switch on central heating systems on September 15 each year, and switch the heat off on June 1. However, it was later revealed by city staff those dates are fluid.

In a report presented to Brampton’s committee of council on April 25, senior city staff recommended council leave those dates in place, but officially give the city’s director of bylaw enforcement the option of not enforcing the bylaw should unseasonable weather make it unreasonable to do so.

The recommended changes to the bylaw did not sit well with some members of council.

“Last fall precipitated this report, because there were a lot of people that were cooking in their apartments in some very hot weather,” said Wards 7 and 8 Coun. Gael Miles, adding the problem is more pronounced in her high-density wards.

Miles also pointed out the solution on offer was the same solution the city employed last fall as residents complained, which didn’t address the problem.

“The problem is you haven’t changed anything. It’s the very same bylaw as before, you just gave it a new name,” Miles told senior staff in council chambers.

“The problem last year was that even though we had the dates, everybody recognized there was no way that the municipality was going to enforce the bylaw — because that would be inhuman — but the landlords determined it was easier for them to just turn the heat on and they did.

“And that’s the kind of situation I’m hoping that this bylaw would address, because it was a really unacceptable situation last year and I’m afraid this bylaw isn’t going to change anything,” added Miles.

The issue, according to senior staff, is there is no one-size-fits-all solution when Mother Nature doesn’t behave as expected.