Winnipeg warns mosquito numbers could rise as domino effect of provincial funding cuts

Money for mosquito control has joined the list of city-provincial funding disputes that already includes squabbles over funding for Winnipeg Transit, ambulances, taxi regulation, police cadets and the police helicopter.

Winnipeg's insect-control branch warns in a report the city is facing a $620,000 shortfall for larviciding operations in neighbouring municipalities because the province has reduced or eliminated its funding for West Nile virus control in the bedroom communities.

Every spring, the city uses ground crews and helicopters to apply larvicides to bodies of standing water both within city limits and just outside its borders, in municipalities that include East St. Paul, West St. Paul, Springfield, Ritchot, Macdonald and Taché.

In a report to council's protection and community services committee, parks and open spaces manager Dave Domke said the province has cut or eliminated its insect-control funding for these communities.

"In May 2017, the province notified municipalities which had existing [West Nile virus] contracts that the cost-sharing funding of the contracts would be eliminated or significantly reduced. As a result, the public works department anticipates an annual funding shortfall of $620,000 plus future inflation to the WNV contracts to larvicide outside the city limits in normal operating years," Domke wrote in his report.

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If no new funding deal can be negotiated, the city will scale back its larviciding from 10 kilometres into the neighbouring municipalities to eight kilometres, Domke told councillors in his report.

This reduction "may result in a slight increase in adult mosquito populations in Winnipeg, particularly in the suburbs adjacent to the city limits," he wrote. 

"It would also be dependent on the precipitation not being excessive in the capital region or that there are not consistently high winds to aid the adult mosquitoes in their flight towards the city."

Domke also wrote the province has reduced its funding for West Nile control within the city by $234,000 a year, but Winnipeg "will continue to protect the health of its citizens and visitors by larviciding for West Nile virus." 

A Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living spokesperson said the funding changes actually flow from efforts to improve the efficiency of the fight against West Nile virus and the main mosquito species that carries it, Culex tarsalis.

"Under the new funding model, only communities situated within a high or moderate risk zone with a sufficiently large treatment area will be eligible to receive funding as part of the program. This new funding model will also mean that some communities are now eligible for increased funding compared with previous years," said a Manitoba Helath spokesperson.

"These changes to the program are actually a more efficient use of resources that came as a result of a decade of experience and a better understanding of Culex tarsalis biology, West Nile virus infection and transmission dynamics," said the spokeperson, citing Richard Baydack, director of communicable disease control for Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living.

The spokesperson said Culex tarsalis is a "rural prairie mosquito" that blows into the city as a result of wind and presents a constant threat to Winnipeg.

"In essence, any benefit associated with treatment in such cases is generally short-lived and in addition to providing a false sense of security, has no significant impact on the presence of adult mosquitoes during the summer months," she said.

Prior to this report from the insect-control branch, Mayor Brian Bowman and other members of his inner circle have complained that changes to provincial funding have forced the city to raise Winnipeg Transit fares by a quarter a ride, contemplate the transfer of ambulance services to the province and absorb the incremental costs of deploying police cadets and operating the police helicopter.

Bowman also complained the province downloaded the responsibility to regulate taxis and services such as Lyft and Uber to the City of Winnipeg.