Marjorie Buck, the Director of Recreation and Community Services for Belleville has said that a locked gate where boats dock would help in preventing such issues from reoccurring. But the feasibility of a gate being able to effectively keep out vandals and thieves from the docks was much contested by Councillor Egerton Boyce. Boyce said that the gate would need to be quite elaborate, as well as expensive, to be an efficient deterrent.

"A simple gate will not stop people from hopping it," said Boyce.

Mayor Neil Ellis was opposed to the idea of a locked gate as well, stating that he did not agree with anything that would bar the citizens of Belleville from accessing what is currently a public domain.

"The waterfront in Belleville is important, and it is important that every citizen have access to that waterfront," said the mayor.

Mayor Ellis said that if it is a security issue, then council should look at a way of keeping the boats themselves secure while still keeping the waterfront open to the general public.

"I've always been a firm believer that a waterfront should be kept in our hands and it should be open to every person in the city of Belleville, not a group or anything like that." said Mayor Ellis.

Councillor Boyce cited that he used to work as a security guard on the docks and waterfront and there was a 24-hour security watch.

"But that was back in 1985," said Boyce.

Currently security at the waterfront is less than desired according to director Buck. A 24-hour security watch no longer exists and therefore has led to a number of boat break-ins in the past few years, including one involving the police chief's boat according to statements made by director Buck in council.

"We hire a security staff, though it's not 24 hours a day. We do have security staff on duty from 11 in the evening to six in the morning and then we have our own harbour staff attendants on duty after that," said Buck. "So there are people on duty but the security floats in between Victoria Harbour as well as Meyer's Pier, so they go between the two sites and that's where issues are coming from."

During the summertime, which is peak boating season, security is at its peak as well, until Labour Day, when hours are cut back. Although director Buck had no hard statistics at the meeting, she recalled several incidents in recent history, such as the police chief's boat, stating that she was being asked directly by boaters to increase security

"The reason that in the summertime we reduce the hours is that our boaters are actually down there on the boats so there's less of a concern," said Buck. "Unfortunately we have had some issues in the past, so they've asked for the security gates and it was planned – so we'll see."

Other security issues and solutions included lock up the showers reserved for boaters, as the public uses them regularly, while still keeping the bathrooms open to the public.