Hamilton, ON – As rolling blackouts leave entire neighbourhoods sweating in the dark, local landlord Gary Feltch has reassured his tenant that the air conditioning unit he has failed to repair for eight weeks is a “character-building opportunity” she should be grateful for.
“Resilience isn’t forged in comfort,” Feltch said Tuesday, speaking from the fully air-conditioned lobby of the property management office he owns and does not live above. “It’s built in adversity. And nothing says adversity like a 32-degree one-bedroom.”
Tenant Priya Anand, who has submitted eleven maintenance requests, says she first noticed the A/C unit’s silence during the June heat wave, shortly after the province’s grid operator began asking residents to conserve power during peak hours.
“I asked him when it would be fixed,” Anand said. “He told me the outages were ‘kind of a blessing in disguise,’ because now I’d ‘really appreciate’ the air once it came back. I told him I would appreciate not getting heat rash. He said that was ‘the spirit.'”
Feltch, who has never personally lived through a blackout thanks to a whole-home generator he mentions unprompted in most conversations, says he views the current climate crisis as an “invitation.”
“Sure, the grid’s strained, the nights are brutal, and Environment Canada has issued, what, four heat warnings this month? But that’s exactly why I’m not rushing the repair,” he explained. “If I fix it too fast, what has she really learned?”
Sources confirm Feltch has instead spent the maintenance budget on a plaque for the building lobby, which reads: “This Building Believes In You.”
Feltch says the philosophy extends throughout the property. Mice teach tenants to share space. A broken front-door lock encourages community vigilance. And the intermittent hot water, he explained, “keeps people humble,” which he hopes will come in handy when he increases the rent later this year.
Provincial tenant advocates note that landlords are legally required to maintain rental units in a habitable condition, a detail Feltch says he’s “aware of, spiritually.”
“Look, I’m not against fixing it,” he said. “I just think there’s something almost noble about a tenant learning to sleep in fifteen-minute increments between fan rotations.”
At press time, Feltch had emailed all tenants a PDF titled “10 Tips to Beat the Heat,” which included suggestions such as “freeze a water bottle,” “consider a hat,” and “remember: resilience is free — unlike, say, a new compressor.”
Anand says she has since begun sleeping at her sister’s place, a decision Feltch called “a bit of an overreaction” and “honestly, a missed growth opportunity.”
