New Westminster is now the first municipality in Canada to legally require landlords to keep rental units cool. Ecovision Window Films works with building owners and property managers across Metro Vancouver to assess heat risk and install qualifying cooling measures before inspections begin. If you manage occupied rental units in New Westminster, here is what Bylaw 6926 means for your obligations, and your business licence.
Direct Answer: Under New Westminster Bylaw 6926, landlords must maintain at least one living space in each occupied rental unit at or below 26°C average overnight during declared extreme heat events, from April 1 to October 31. Responsibility sits with the landlord, not the tenant. Non-compliance puts the business licence required to legally rent the unit at risk.
What Does Bylaw 6926 Actually Require New Westminster Landlords to Do?
Bylaw 6926 amends New Westminster’s Business Regulation and Licensing (Rental Units) Bylaw. The core obligation is this: during an extreme heat event declared by the City, landlords must maintain a 26°C average overnight temperature (8pm to 8am) in at least one living space in each occupied rental unit. The bylaw applies from April 1 to October 31 each year.
The bylaw does not prescribe a single method. It gives landlords flexibility in how they achieve the 26°C overnight average, which is why the city published a list of qualifying measures. Window film is named on that list alongside portable air conditioning, thermal curtains, fans, and air sealing. Buildings that already maintain these temperatures passively, certain basement suites, for example, do not need to make any changes.
The context behind this bylaw matters. The 2021 heat dome killed 33 people in the New Westminster area alone, according to official city documentation. This bylaw is a direct response to that event. Council gave Bylaw 6926 final adoption in July 2025 following third reading in March 2026 of associated enforcement amendments.
Who Is Responsible, the Landlord or the Tenant?
The obligation belongs to the landlord. Tenants cannot be required to provide their own cooling, and landlords cannot stop tenants from installing their own portable cooling equipment. A separate 2025 amendment to the Bylaw already locked in this tenant right, landlords who prohibit portable AC units in a lease now violate municipal law as well as the Residential Tenancy Act.
This matters for property managers overseeing older buildings. If a strata or landlord’s lease language prohibits portable appliances, that language is no longer enforceable in New Westminster rental units. The heat event is when that exposure becomes visible, and when the first complaints get filed.
How Is the New Westminster Heat Bylaw Enforced?
Enforcement under Bylaw 6926 is complaint-driven and collaborative, the City has not published a daily fine schedule. What the City can do is deny or revoke the business licence required to legally rent residential units. For landlords and property management companies operating multi-unit buildings in New Westminster, that is the operative risk: losing the licence that permits you to collect rent.
The enforcement model means the first heat event of the summer is when exposure becomes real. A single tenant complaint during a heat emergency triggers the inspection process. Buildings without a documented compliance plan, or buildings that have taken no qualifying measures, are in the most vulnerable position. Buildings that have already installed qualifying measures and can present a compliance summary to the City are in a far stronger position.
From Ecovision’s experience working with property managers at senior-living facilities including Rosemary Heights Seniors Village and Windermere Care Centre, the property managers who prepare before the first heat advisory arrive at summer with documented records. That documentation is what buys goodwill in a complaint-driven process.
Why Does the City Specifically List Window Film as a Qualifying Cooling Measure?
The City of New Westminster names window film on its official list of accepted cooling measures for landlord compliance under Bylaw 6926, verbatim in the city’s published guidance for rental property owners. It appears alongside portable air conditioning, fans, thermal curtains, and air sealing. That is significant: it means window film satisfies the compliance obligation on its own if it demonstrably contributes to maintaining the overnight 26°C average.
Window film is the only measure on that list that works at the source of the heat problem. Solar heat gain enters buildings through glass, LLumar and Vista solar control films block 50 – 80% of that heat before it reaches the interior. Portable AC units fight heat after it has already entered the room. Film prevents it from entering at all, which means AC runs less, electricity costs fall, and the building stays cooler on a multi-day heat event when portable units struggle to keep pace.
| Measure | Works at heat source? | Permanent? | Ongoing energy cost? | Bylaw-qualifying? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window film (LLumar / Vista) | Yes, blocks 50-80% of solar heat at the glass | Yes, 15-25 year lifespan | No | Yes |
| Portable AC | No, reacts after heat enters | No, tenant-operated | Yes, runs continuously | Yes |
| Thermal curtains | Partial, reduces radiant transfer | Yes | No | Yes |
| Air sealing | No, reduces infiltration, not solar gain | Yes | No | Yes |
What Does an Ecovision Cooling Assessment Include?
An Ecovision Cooling Assessment is a structured, on-site review of your building’s heat exposure and compliance readiness. It takes 60 – 90 minutes for a typical mid-rise rental building and produces a compliance summary report you can present to the City. The assessment is complimentary for New Westminster building owners and property managers.
- Facade survey: identify worst-exposure walls, document glazing type, measure existing film (if any) and its solar rejection rating.
- Unit-level risk mapping: pinpoint the hottest units, typically top-floor and west or south exposure, and document them by suite number.
- Heat-gain modelling: estimate peak indoor temperature overnight with and without film or other interventions, using the building’s orientation and glazing data.
- Ranked recommendations: all qualifying interventions ranked by cost-effectiveness, with commercial solar film ($9 – $18 per square foot installed) typically delivering the best heat reduction per dollar across a building.
- Compliance summary report: a branded one-pager documenting findings, measures installed or planned, and temperature projections, ready to present to the City of New Westminster.
Ecovision is a certified installer for LLumar and Vista window films, with completed projects for multi-unit residential buildings, strata councils, senior-living facilities, and commercial properties across the Lower Mainland. For New Westminster landlords, the assessment is the fastest path from uncertainty to documented compliance. Book a Free Cooling Assessment to get started.
Portable AC vs. Window Film: Which Approach Keeps You Compliant Longer?
Portable AC gives you compliance tonight. On a moderate heat day it will hold 26°C overnight, it is tenant-controllable, and it costs nothing for the landlord to supply (tenants can bring their own under the 2025 amendment). The tradeoff: it runs continuously during a heat event, draws significant electricity, and on extreme multi-day events can fail to keep pace, precisely the scenario that triggered the 33 heat deaths in 2021.
Window film gives you compliance permanently. Once LLumar DR25 or Vista solar control film is installed on the worst-exposure facades, solar heat gain drops by 50 – 80% across those windows. The building’s baseline temperature falls, every portable cooling device in the building performs better, and the compliance story becomes permanent rather than seasonal. A building that installs film on its west and south faces is structurally easier to keep at 26°C than one relying on portable equipment alone.
For the commercial window film ROI calculation, New Westminster landlords should factor in reduced AC running costs and the elimination of compliance risk over the building’s operating life. Film installed today on a 10-storey rental building will still be performing in 2040, well beyond the 2026 bylaw enforcement window.
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Ready to document your building’s compliance? Ecovision provides a free on-site Cooling Assessment and a compliance summary report you can show the City, at no cost and no obligation. Book a Free Cooling Assessment or call (236) 862-0052.
About the Author: This article was written by the Ecovision Window Films team. Edward, Director at Ecovision, brings a distinctive perspective to the window film industry, with over a decade in real estate development, including roles as Executive Director at a real estate development firm and Director of Strategic Partnerships, before joining Ecovision. That background gives the company a sharp edge in serving BC property managers and building owners. Ecovision is a certified installer for leading film brands with completed projects for healthcare facilities, government buildings, and commercial properties throughout the Lower Mainland. For a free site assessment, call (236) 862-0052 or visit ecovisioncanada.com/contact/.