Spider bit worker, government now says

Shared Services Canada now says a spider bit one of its employees in June, prompting the first of two evacuations of an Ottawa office building.

As CBC reported earlier this week, the department twice sent workers home from 2300 St. Laurent Blvd. due to concerns about a spider, once in June and again in October. In both cases, employees were told to work from home for two days while the building was fumigated.

The building's landlord covered the cost of the fumigation in June, but in October taxpayers covered the $18,000 bill, which included treating ducts with a plant-based essential oil to eradicate any remaining insects. 

• Spider scare sends federal government workers home — twice

CBC asked repeatedly why the department took such drastic steps over a mere spider sighting, but it was only on Friday that a spokesperson confirmed by email that an employee was in fact bitten.

'Consistent' with brown recluse bite

"In June, management was made aware that an employee sought medical treatment for a spider bite that occurred at work and the treating physician determined that the bite site was consistent with that of a brown recluse spider," wrote spokesperson Frédérica Dupuis.

In October a spider was caught in the building and sent to an entomologist to be identified, but testing ultimately determined it was a more common yellow sac spider.

The bite of the venomous brown recluse spider can be harmful to humans and can sometimes cause a painful reaction, but experts say that variety of arachnid has only been found in Canada a handful of times.