Selling the Waterfront and VictoriaVille Parkades was again discussed.

During Monday’s council meeting, it was voted that the city should maintain ownership of the structures.

The decision comes after Administration advised the city not to pursue the sale of the parkades, and instead continue to operate and maintain the structures. This was based off of the public benefits from the parkades that represent “positive value for money” while looking at strategies to close the gap between expenses and revenues.

It was also stressed in the document that the parkades were built to provide a public service, not turn a profit.

“Some members of council have concerns about revenues and capital costs when it comes to the parkades,” says Gale. “Certainly that is true, the parkades do not make money, however they are contributing to the community. They are providing a service much like many other services we provide that don’t make money, or don’t generate sufficient revenue let’s say. We also provide parking to support businesses and densify the downtowns.”

At-Large Coun. Peng You brought forward an amendment, that would see the city sell the VictoriaVille parkade, while still owning the Waterfront location, but it was voted down 10-2.

The idea of selling the parkades has been an idea heavily backed by At-Large Coun. Aldo Ruberto.

“These facilities have been losing an average $200-thousand a year,” explains Ruberto. “There’s all kinds of things that people are saying like these are a treasure, they’re valuable to our community because it’s good for the public, but when you look at the statistics of who uses them all, it’s basically people that are working in the downtown area, not shoppers. They are not the majority of people who are using those facilities, and the whole purpose of these parkades was for shopping, people go downtown and go shopping.”

Ruberto went on to mention that there are over 1,000 land parking spaces in the south core, and 900 to 1,000 in the north core.