Mosquito-free summer injects $2.5M into city's bottom line

For many Manitobans, a mosquito-free summer is priceless. For the City of Winnipeg, the absence of biting insects was worth$2.5 million this year.

The city's insect control branch expects to wind up having spent about three-quarters of its $10.3-millionbudget for 2018, mainly because there was no need to fog for adult mosquitoes, public works spokesperson Ken Allen said in a statement.

• Winnipeg's mosquito count lowest in 40 years

The city plans to transfer $1 million of the $2.5-million insect-control-branch surplus to its insect-control reserve, which will be topped up to itsmaximum level of $3 million, Allen said.

The reserve is used to pay for fogging in bad mosquito years.

The remaining $1.5-million bug-fighting surplus will be applied to the public works department bottom line, Allen said.

The city is forecasting an overallyear-end budget surplus of $9.5 million, based on figures from the end of September. That pool of black ink is expected to rise unless the city is walloped with unusually heavy snow in December.