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The Community Energy Association has recognized the City of New Westminster’s “people-centred” approach to dealing with extreme heat.
At this year’s Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver, the Community Energy Association presented New Westminster with a Climate and Energy Action Award for its response to the threat extreme heat events pose to residents’ safety.
The association stated that, following the 2021 heat dome, which claimed 619 lives in B.C., New Westminster “launched a coordinated, cross-departmental initiative that has shifted its extreme heat response to focus on proactive, community-wide resilience.” That included becoming the first city in Canada to adopt bylaws prohibiting landlords from restricting cooling equipment (2025) and requiring at least one safe overnight living space in occupied rental units (2026).
“These measures will save lives,” said a statement from the judges. “This comprehensive response sends a strong signal to the community that addressing the impact of extreme heat is a priority for the city and that there are clear, practical ways to keep residents safe.”
Megan Lohmann, CEO of the Community Energy Association, presented the award to city representatives at the 2026 Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention.
“These award-winning projects and community champions prove that climate action truly exists at an intersection with economic development, jobs, affordability, energy security and resilience,” she said in a news release. “In fact, it’s at the community level where actions have the greatest impact and deliver so many tangible benefits.”
The Community Energy Association is a B.C-based non-profit and charity that accelerates local action on climate and energy. It grew from a committee established by the Government of BC and the UBCM in the 1990s and was incorporated as a non-profit in 2003.
Leya Behra, the city’s deputy director of climate action, said a climate-specific team is not driving the city’s work in responding to extreme heat.
“It’s a city wide effort,” she told Freshet News. “We highlighted everything from education and awareness to parks programs to our street trees and our urban forest strategy, all the way to research and our energy-reduction programs and cooling programs.”
By having a comprehensive process, Behra said the city is able to ensure all community members have access to the extreme heat response, whether it is accessing increased programming at recreation centres during hot spells or having access to more shaded outdoor areas.
Behra said the city has three timelines for actions related to extreme heat:
· near-term: things that are “quickly deployable” like access to information, community engagement, misting stations and support from the city’s emergency management office
· medium-term: things like prohibiting landlords from prohibiting the use of air conditioners in rental units and adopting the safe overnight maximum temperature bylaw
· long-term: things like assessing which buildings in the city are at risk of overheating and determining what systemic changes are required to address the issue
“Pretty much every department in the city has played some kind of role in our whole heat response as a city,” Behra said. “One of the really interesting outcomes and achievements is everyone plays a role in community resilience and in making a livable community.”
Behra said the award demonstrates the City of New Westminster is putting the community’s daily experience first in terms of how it designs, develops and delivers initiatives to address extreme heat.
“It just continues to highlight that people-first approach develops comprehensive solutions that just make our city more livable,” she said. “That’s how I think staff see the work we are doing — we are trying to be in service of our public and also protect people where we can have access to delivering that kind of work.”
Thirty-three people died in New Westminster died during the 2021 heat dome — the fourth highest number of deaths of any community in B.C. Between June 25 and July 1, 2021, the heat dome resulted in temperatures of 40 to nearly 50 degrees in some B.C. communities.
Behra said the heat dome “exposed a lot of cracks in systems” across the province, but it also exposed opportunities for cities to lead. She said responding to extreme heat is well within the city’s mandate to support its citizens.
“I think it recognizes that the city is a place that is responding,” she said. “When something has happened, we are not going to sit and wait for it to happen again and only think about emergency response; we are trying to put in proactive measures, and I think that is part of what are being recognized for is how proactive we are being in our response.”
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