Vancouver urban planner says air conditioning should be considered essential

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — After more than 800 lives were lost during last month’s record-breaking heatwave, there’s a call to make air conditioning more accessible across B.C.

The Vancouver City Planning Commission has put together a number of recommendations to protect the most vulnerable when temperatures soar.

Commissioner Amina Yasin says the province needs to update its Medical Program to get at-risk people access to A/C faster, saying it’s as essential as plumbing in your apartment.

“It’s essentially similar to a refrigerator, except [A/C is] as being necessary to prevent people … from becoming ill and dying.”

She says it’s already happening in other places like Ontario and even New York City, “because they understand it to be a life-saving medical equipment.”

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For the time being, Yasin says the province recommends people to find cooling spaces or head to the mall when temperatures spike. However, she points out the mall isn’t a public space, “and there is sort of the encouragement to spend money and consume when you’re in a mall.

“So seeking it out as a refuge space actually does result in other forms of conflicts that can arise, such as being policed out of that space,” she explains.

“It makes much more sense, especially with examples in other jurisdictions, to update the B.C. medical equipment categories and include air filtration and air conditioning units. While also taking into consideration the fact our design standards for multifamily housing and apartment housing moving, that we should really be considering the need for air conditioning as an essential, as important as indoor plumbing, and not really a luxury, but really an essential element of life, as our climate is rapidly changing.”

The Vancouver City Planning Commission presented 16 short and long-term solutions to mitigate deaths in future heat emergencies.