News

Ever since the deadly heat dome that scorched the Pacific Northwest in 2021, the impacts of climate change on housing policy have been an area of concern. In 2023, we advocated directly to the Minister of Housing to change the Residential Tenancy Act to disallow landlords from prohibiting tenants to install and use air conditioners. In 2024, our law reform platform took this a step further and provided specific language for the Act and detailed information about the dire health consequences—especially to vulnerable populations like seniors—that tenants face when they can’t appropriately cool their homes. With summer in full swing, our work becomes urgent once again.

As it currently stands, landlords can still prohibit tenants from using an air conditioner, and the provincial government’s free portable air conditioning program has been scaled back: now, only tenants who are part of official Home Care or Mental Health and Substance Use Programs are eligible. These policy choices have dire consequences for tenants across BC.

We’ve already written to the Ministers of Health, Housing and Municipal Affairs, and Energy and Climate Solutions about these issues, arguing once again that landlords should not be able to prohibit renters from utilizing air conditioners, and asking that the free air conditioner program be made available again to low-income renters. Climate change isn’t stopping. What was once considered unseasonably hot is becoming the norm and government must respond. That’s where we come in. We will continue to advocate for the rights, health, and wellbeing of tenants as part of our commitment to justice.