How Toronto's wildfire smoke and air quality are impacting the city's most vulnerable

As an orange tree haze blankets Toronto's skyline, the compounding of an send character warning and a prolonged heat up wave has advocates warning that the city's most vulnerable populations are at risk and stepping up demands for stronger protections.

While officials urge people to stay inside and close their windows due to the wildfire smoke, advocates warn those safety measures are nearly impossible for people without air conditioning, unhoused residents and outdoor labourers.

Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of seniors' advocacy organization CanAge, says older residents face some of the highest health risks.

“Aging lungs are like vintage cars. They don't filter as efficiently,” she said. “If you add on chronic conditions like COPD, heart disease, or diabetes... You've got a perfect storm of vulnerability.”

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Smoke events typically trigger a 40 per cent increase in hospitalizations among Canadians over 65, Tamblyn Watts said, adding that policies must evolve proactively.

“These smoke events are becoming the new normal,” she said. “We need to make sure we have air filtration systems in homes and ways of checking in on how older people are doing.”

In response to the calls for policy changes that protect seniors, Ontario’s Ministry of Health deferred to Public Health Ontario. The health agency provided a resource outlining the province’s most at-risk populations with a reminder that “PHO does not have a role in setting or enforcing public health policies or legislation.” 

Finding respite is even more difficult for those living on Toronto’s streets. 

“I wish we could get all the folks experiencing homelessness into affordable housing,” Teekens said. “But we all know there's not enough.”

While shelter staff encourage residents to stay inside and outreach teams distribute water, Na-Me-Res shelters are already at capacity, forcing staff to direct people to municipal cooling spaces or libraries.

In a statement provided by the city, communications advisor Imane Boussaid said emergency surge capacity has been activated across the municipal shelter system.

The city is also operating a 24-hour cooling space at 136 Spadina Rd., and has opened six "cleaner air spaces": city hall, Metro Hall, North York Civic Centre, Scarborough Civic Centre, York Civic Centre and East York Civic Centre   

"They are always overcapacity," she said, adding that advice to stay indoors is meaningless for those with nowhere to go. "After my shift I will be going home... Unhoused people don't have that option."

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Alex Armstrong, sales manager at Design Turf, said a "macho" culture often pushes landscaping crews to ignore risks.

"We don't really have a lot of policies in place for air quality," Armstrong said, noting it is something the industry must look at more closely.

Shane Desjardin, owner of True North Masonry, worked through the haze Wednesday despite having asthma.

"You've just got to power through," he said. "A little bit of heat and smog and stuff … It's not going to make me go home."

Dr. Samantha Green, a family physician at Unity Health Toronto and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, warned heavy labour can make the dangers worse.  

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She encouraged anyone working outdoors in these conditions to wear well-fitted N95 masks and reschedule heavy physical activities when possible.

However, Green also emphasized that individual precautions are not enough, calling for urgent better worker protections during climate-driven events like wildfire smoke and extreme heat.

"We need to be thinking about protecting workers from climate health impacts on a policy level," she said. "We need to ensure there are rules that prevent these health harms, but we also need to tackle the root cause by phasing out fossil fuels, because this air quality is not normal."

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In a statement, Ontario's Ministry of Labour said that under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers are legally required to take every reasonable precaution to protect employees from environmental hazards like heat stress and poor air quality.

The ministry added that workers have the right to refuse unsafe work, pointing to increased maximum fines for workplace safety violations as part of provincial enforcement efforts.

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