When Etobicoke’s Humber Polytechnic announced plans to not only greatly reduce its carbon footprint but do so in record time, many students celebrated.
“I think it’s great. Obviously, the more we can get to net zero, the better for us and the environment in genera,” said a student who spoke to CityNews on the condition of anonymity.
In 2024, the college moved its target to achieve net-zero emissions from 2050 to 2029. The move included transitioning from natural gas to advanced electric heating systems, a multi-phase project called “SWITCH,” which a spokesperson says is aimed at reducing natural gas use and carbon emissions.
But students who live in residence on the north campus say the changeover has left them in the cold on many days.
“It’s greatly reduced the hot water in our bathrooms,” the student told us. “Some days there’d be no hot water for 12 hours. Some days the shortage would last three hours. But the biggest thing is there was no communication.”
At least two other students spoke with CityNews – all wanted to remain anonymous.
“I work for the college and I am about two weeks shy of graduating, and I worry any kind of negative attention might interrupt that,” one of the students told us.
The students say they’ve experienced hot water problems since they moved into the dorms this fall.
“It started in September with sporadic hot water outages. This was a new system so most of us understood at the time there might be glitches but then it just continued and has been ongoing ever since,” said one student.
Students most upset are those who paid extra to live in the suite style dorms equipped with private bathrooms.
“But it’s no good when you can’t even shower,” one of the students said. “The options they left us with is to go and shower in other buildings that had hot water but that’s not what we paid for.”
Many of the students who spoke to us are working in placements.
“We’re in hospitals and daycares and so many different settings and you come home and you feel gross and you’re like, ‘I just want to shower,’” they said.
Humber acknowledged there were some unplanned impacts on hot water access.
“This included a water line break during extreme cold temperatures this winter. In these instances, communication and frequent status updates were provided to all residents in the impacted building,” a spokesperson said.
But students we spoke with say communication has not been ongoing, telling us they were often left without answers even after they frequently reported water issues.
“You would reach out to them and say ‘hey there’s no hot water again’ and they go ‘oh we’ll fix it’ and then it wouldn’t get fixed,” said a student.
Given their experience, several students who paid for the premium suites say they made requests for partial refunds which they claim were all denied.
“Hot water is a basic necessity and to be without it during one of the coldest winters we can remember is not okay,” said a student.
The students point out their complaints would be dealt with differently if they were renting from a private landlord.
“Complaints like these are handled by the Landlord and Tenant Board. But College residence halls are not part of the tenant act. I understand that that’s a much bigger issue, but there’s nothing we can do,” said a student.
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