It is June 13, 2018.

In the city of London, Ontario, the weather is hot: it reaches 27.2 degrees Celcius by lunchtime.¹

I settle down for the night in my apartment - which, due to the fact that I'm moving soon and haven't got my air conditioner installed, is unconscionably warm. I put my hand to the radiator.

The heat is STILL ON.

I sweat through my sheets - which are not even covering me - all night long.

The Vital Services By-Law - PH-6 of London, Canada, in its current form, was passed in 1995, with only small amendments since then. The definitions from the City of London Act (Vital Services), 1993, still used in this document, state:

"adequate and suitable" in reference to vital services at a rented residential unit means sufficient to enable,

[...]

(b) the heating of the unit on and between the 15th day of September of one year and the 15th day of June of the following year to a minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) between six o'clock in the morning and eleven o'clock in the evening of the same day, and to a minimum temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit) at all other times...

The problem with this approach is two-fold:

1). apartment heating typically has one setting, ON, and even in the winter months keeps units well above the minimum of 20° C, and

2). climate change is real, and is raising temperatures earlier and longer throughout the year, every year.

Rather than insist on mandatory heat for buildings in London, Ontario, into June and September, this petition seeks to stop the heating as of May 31, and not resume it until September 31.

The "official" Heat Wave of 2018 started just two weeks after the cutoff date for mandatory apartment heating in London, when the mercury got stuck around 35° C for a week.² Toronto³ and Ottawa⁴ were breaking all-time heat records into September - but if their by-laws are anything like ours, the heat had been turned on in their rental units.

We need to deal with reality. Temperatures are rising earlier, and are staying elevated longer in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. I suffered through several weeks of roughly 30° C temperatures inside my last apartment. It is only April, and already, the thermostat in my new unit is showing 25.5° C with all the windows open. Buildings contribute considerably to the Greenhouse Effect, and having to run hundreds of air conditioners to counteract the gratuitous heating is just aggravating our climate crisis.

Please act now to change the dates of the mandatory heating in the bylaw, so that people in apartment living can actually... you know, live.

Sources:

Image: @eyeshootimages/Instagram via https://dailyhive.com/toronto/hottest-september-5-toronto-history-2018

1. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/canada/london/historic?month=6&year=2018

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_North_American_heat_wave#Quebec_and_Ontario

3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Canada



4. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-breaks-weather-record-autumn-heat-1.4305024