City plans to open 'cleaner air spaces'

Wildfire smoke, extreme heat among rising health risks from climate change

- BEN SPURR

Smoke from forest fires in northern Ontario and Quebec last summer gave Toronto the world's worst air quality. This year, the city is opening "clean air spaces."

For the first time ever, Toronto is offering residents a place where they can breathe easier this summer.

The city plans to provide six “cleaner air spaces” — buildings equipped with MERV 13 filters where people can take a moment to literally catch their breath — as part of a pilot project spurred by last year’s historically bad wildfire season that blanketed Toronto in smoke.

“Wildfire smoke can affect the health of the population, especially for people who are vulnerable,” said Dr. Howard Shapiro, associate medical officer of health.

He said the city and Toronto Public Health will assess the pilot project — which will operate at city hall, Metro Hall, and civic centres in East York, York, North York and Scarborough — after the 2024 wildfire season “and make a determination if there is a need for expansion in future years.”

The clean air spaces are just the latest measure Toronto is taking to defend itself from climate change, which, far from being a distant threat, is posing increasingly serious challenges for the city in the present day.

More extreme weather is already here. The number of days each year when Toronto temperatures climb above 30 C has risen to an average of about 18, up from eight in the 1950s, according to a March city report.

It warned that Toronto is experiencing “hotter, wetter and wilder” weather, and “these conditions are expected to worsen.”

Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, executive director of Toronto Emergency Management, said extreme weather is a growing concern for her office.

“It ranks high up” on the list of threats, she said. “We’re starting to see an increase in (extreme heat) events. And so it is something that we’re watching.”