Bedbugs in federal buildings have cost Liberal government nearly $1 million
OTTAWA – Infestations of bedbugs in federal buildings in Ottawa and across the river in Gatineau, Que., have cost the Liberal government nearly $1 million during the last three years.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, exterminators were hired to inspect and fumigate 34 federal buildings and search dogs were used to inspect Canada Post headquarters, where 15 cubicles were sprayed on Nov. 30. The final bill for extermination of the bedbugs, since 2017, was $575,523 but the figure does not include an additional $400,000 put up by Public Works Canada.
“There is an urgency for the requirement considering the health and safety risks associated with the bedbug situation in the national capital area,” federal bureaucrats wrote, according to Blacklock’s. “The bedbug situation in federal government buildings in the national capital area is unforeseeable as this is something that is not expected in an office setting.”
Canada Post, the Canada Revenue Agency, Canadian Police College, Department of Fisheries, Department of Health, Department of Immigration, Department of Industry, Department of Public Works, Department of Transport, Library and Archives Canada and the National Printing Bureau were all hit by an infestation of bedbugs.
The Environmental Health Centre also used dogs to search for bedbugs on Nov. 8 after staff spotted bugs and furniture was destroyed. At the Department of Immigration, bedbugs forced the closure of the 11-storey office.
“In the past, insecticides such as DDT helped to keep the bedbug population at bay with residues that continues working after the product was sprayed,” the Pest Management Regulatory Agency wrote in its 2006 guide about bedbugs. “Now with the increase in use of bait traps instead of broad spectrum sprays, specific pests such as ants and cockroaches are being targeted and bedbugs are no longer being eliminated.”