Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows activated cooling centres earlier this week for those who need somewhere to go to escape the brutal daytime heat.
It’s a welcome addition to the community’s existing stock of places for people to cool off.
In Maple Ridge, the Greg Moore Youth Centre opened its doors starting last Sunday, while the Pitt Meadows Family Recreation Centre served the same purpose.
Both facilities were pet-friendly, which is welcome news to those who worry about our animal friends when it gets hot, too.
In addition, both communities have been promoting spray parks, public libraries, rec centres, and businesses that have air conditioning, like movie theatres and malls, but those aren’t all viable options for all of our citizens all of the time, including the most vulnerable.
Some cost money to attend, and most of them close down before the day’s heat has fully faded, especially during a brutal heat wave.
We’re lucky that this week’s heat, while unpleasant for those who have to work outdoors or lack air conditioning, isn’t going to be as intense nor lethal as the heat dome was two years ago.
During and after the heat dome, it took some time for provincial authorities to change long-standing procedures.
There have always been heat waves, and for decades, it was thought that it was the responsibility of individuals to deal with them.
Now we are slowly realizing that increasing heat – both from climate change and from the concrete and asphalt heat islands that our urban cores have become – require a collective response.
Yet two years after a heat dome killed 619 British Columbians, and the town of Lytton burned to the ground, we’re still seeing roadblocks.
The efforts to get air conditioners to vulnerable renters, especially seniors and those with physical disabilities, is being held up by some apartment landlords who insist on banning the units.
If there are concerns about electrical systems not being able to handle the load, the province needs to get working with landlords on ways to get those repairs done. We can’t have summer after summer of people trapped in aging buildings without any way to install cooling systems.
Here in B.C., we have a lot of older housing stock. The homes of the poor and marginalized are more likely to be older, built for when the climate was a degree or two cooler even during mid-summer.
But between climate change and construction, things are not going to be consistently cooler. We have to look out for each other.