The Canada Revenue Agency and the Union of Taxation Employees have confirmed to Global News the large tax centre on Stapon Road in Winnipeg has a bedbug issue.
Gary Esslinger, the union’s regional vice-president, told 680 CJOB workers at the government building – which has thousands of employees – discovered bedbugs over the past few months.
Although the problem, he says, is far from an infestation – only a small number of live bugs and eggs have been found – it’s something the workers and employer understandably want dealt with.
“They’ve found, over the last couple of months, maybe four or five actual bedbugs, and a few cases of eggs,” he said.
“The actual bedbugs and/or eggs… I would think 10-15 in total in the tax centre, two or three or four that were actually live.”
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Esslinger said management hired an outside company to investigate, including the use of a dog trained to sniff out bedbugs.
“The employer and the union… we all understand it’s a concern to people.
“Everybody recognizes that something like that has to be dealt with because people don’t want to be taking them home, because they’re tough to eradicate.”
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Esslinger said the Transcona-area office hasn’t been given the all-clear yet, but the issue is being dealt with.
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