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2w ago

Record Ontario Heat Fuels Push for School Air Conditioning Despite Soaring Costs

Toronto school boards face hundreds of millions in costs to air-condition classrooms under a scorching heat wave

Toronto’s all-time record heat wave happened in 1936. “Heat toll 22 dead; mercury reaches 103.7 (F),” was the Toronto Daily Star’s banner headline on July 10.
A cat sleeps in an apartment window beside an air conditioner, in Burnaby, B.C., on Saturday, August 5, 2023.
(Getty Images)

Overview

  • Hamilton Wentworth District School Board staff estimate it would cost $200 million to install air conditioning in all its schools, calling the plan “relatively impossible.”
  • A 2018 Toronto District School Board report placed the price tag at roughly $400 million (about $500 million today) plus substantial annual maintenance and energy expenses.
  • Toronto recorded highs of 35 °C this week, prompting renewed calls for classroom cooling and consideration of a dedicated chief heat officer to manage extreme heat responses.
  • The Cool Coalition reports that heat waves already claim around 12 000 lives annually and expose nearly one-third of the world’s population to more than 20 days of dangerous heat each year, with the IPCC warning that up to three-quarters could face life-threatening conditions by century’s end.
  • Cooling currently consumes one-fifth of global electricity and the United Nations Environment Program projects emissions from air conditioning and refrigeration could triple by 2050.