B.C. heat preparedness: Free air conditioning for a tiny number of at-risk people

Two years since the mercury started rising ahead of an exceptionally fatal heat wave, the provincial government has announced a $10 million program to provide air conditioning to thousands of British Columbians vulnerable to heat-related illness and death.

The funds will be administered through BC Hydro, which already has a list of people eligible for financial assistance and will buy and install the 8,000 units. The minister of health was vague about eligibility details and how the process would work, saying there would be an application process through the utility, with input from health authorities as to who should be prioritized for the program.

The province’s leading advocacy organization for people with disabilities applauded the move, but noted that more than a million British Columbians are considered to have a disability, and a quarter of them are poor.

“It's probably much higher than 300,000 low income people with disabilities that would need access to this,” said Helaine Boyd, executive director of the Disability Alliance of BC. “There's lots of people who need an air conditioner that don’t have a case manager under the health authority, so they might fall through the cracks.”

Minister Adrian Dix acknowledged that the program might prove insufficient, but insisted it’s a significant amount of money and that “it may be that demand will exceed and we will have to do more, but this is an extremely strong statement and start in focussing in on vulnerable people.”

EXTENDED TIMELINE FOR DISTRIBUTION

The funding does not include any provisions for the increased energy expenses, though the minister is considering support in the future. When CTV News pointed out some strata bylaws prohibit air conditioners, even for seniors, Dix said the health authorities are working on the issue for rentals and multi-unit homes to allow for the devices.

“We're seeing a range of health impacts directly linked to changing climate patterns,” said Dix, insisting that several measures were required in response and that the three-year timeline for distribution of funds and units was reasonable.

“We still have to purchase and acquire and install air conditioners and that can take some time, so we'll proceed and we're hoping to do significant amount in the first year,” he said.

Dix was defensive when asked about the province’s slow response, particularly when Washington and Oregon states had high death tolls and responded much faster to the provision of cooling units, outlining the many fixes he had to do to the province’s emergency services and healthcare system after the disastrous response to the 2021 heat dome.

HEAT DOME FALLOUT

The multi-million dollar investment is a direct result of criticism that arose from the province’s response to the exceptional heat dome of event of 2021, when an unusual weather pattern developed over western North America early in the summer, with sudden high temperatures lingering for days without cooling down at night.

A total of 619 people died over the course of several weeks, as some people who were hospitalized or sickened by the heat slowly died from their injuries. 

Another 16 people died from hyperthermia during heat waves last year, but the coroner’s service did not recommend the designation of air conditioning as medically-necessary devices at that time, nor in its report on the heat dome.

However, all levels of government have taken notice of the fact so many people died in sweltering indoor temperatures, and the City of Vancouver has already updated its building code to require AC in certain new homes.

At Tuesday event unveiling the federal government’s “National Adaptation Strategy” for climate change in Vancouver, one of the targets presented in the strategy is to eliminate deaths due to extreme heat waves by 2040.

The province has also implemented a new Heat Alert Warning System (HARS), which began last year and provides much clearer and more timely information to the public.