Prohibiting municipalities…

Prohibiting municipalities from requiring pedestrian-level wind safety and comfort studies exposes the province to foreseeable liability and public harm.
These studies are not bureaucratic hurdles—they are essential, evidence-based tools used to prevent injuries and fatalities caused by wind tunnel effects from tall buildings.

It is well established in engineering and urban planning that when wind interacts with tall buildings, it can be redirected downward and funnelled along streets and between structures, leading to wind speeds at ground level that are significantly higher than in open areas.

While the specific cause of the high winds that injured the Mayor of Hamilton remains undetermined, her recent injury during a windstorm underscores how dangerous urban wind conditions can be—particularly in areas with vertical development.

With known precedents of pedestrian deaths, serious injuries, and costly retrofits in cities that failed to require such assessments, removing this safeguard would create legal, ethical, and financial risks for both municipalities and the province.

Consider the case of Bridgewater Place in Leeds, UK, where the design of a tall building caused dangerous downdrafts that led to the death of a pedestrian and forced the city to undertake expensive mitigation. Similarly, in 1982, a woman in New York City sued the building's architect, owner, engineer, and the city for $6.5 million (approximately $20 million in 2025 dollars) after being knocked over by strong winds caused by the building’s design.

These are not abstract concerns—they are real-world consequences of neglecting pedestrian-level wind safety.