Bed bug infestations under control, city says

By Richard Deschamps
In CJAD
6/28/2012

Bed bug infestations have gone slightly up in the past year, but the city of Montreal and the Montreal public health department say they’ve got the situation under control.
In 2011, 2.8 per cent of households on the island had infestations – a 0.1 per cent increase.

Norman King, a manager at the public health department, says this means the city is managing the fight, despite the small uptick.
It has now been a year since the two organizations teamed up to fight bed bugs, a growing problem in cities around the world.
The main parts of the campaign were to inform the public about bed bugs and to record breakouts.

Executive committee member Gilles Deguire explained that the city is remaining mum on those statistics, out of privacy concerns and to avoid stigmatizing certain areas where there are breakouts.
Carl Boileau, a Projet Montréal city councillor and former exterminator, agreed that the plan is working well, but that tenants, especially those who speak neither French or English, need to be better informed about their rights.