The town of Leamington is moving forward with a consultant to assess the outer breakwall at the Leamtington Marina.

The Ministry of Transportation is recommending it be removed while they prepare a report for the public on the matter.

"We're still in the information gathering stage, the ministry has not made a decision as to what they want to do with it, they're still studying it,” says Robert Sharon, Leamington’s director of infrastructure services.

In June 2011, Edward Monteiro's son and two others died after crashing into the then unlit breakwall.

"It's like up and down you know? It was only 4 years ago I lost my son and it's hard though,” says Monteiro.

Since then, lights have been installed to improve boater safety and visibility.

"I think they should remove it," says Monteiro.

Many boaters disagree, saying the outer breakwall already serves a safety purpose, scaling back powerful waves when storms roll in.

Sharon says the breakwall was built in the 1950's to reduce wave action at the leamington dock.

Last September, a public meeting was held to hear concerns residents had should the breakwall be removed, with many wanting it to stay.

"Yes we've heard that feedback,” says Sharon. “Part of the public consultation feedback and certainly part of the feedback from the users of our facility is that they think it really does help with the wave action and it does help them navigate in and out of the facility."

The ministry says they will wait for and consider the Leamington consultant report before finalizing their report for the public.

"So we want to have the engineer take a look at that and basically verify those results and potentially design some infrastructure that would mitigate those negative impacts," says Sharon.

Monteiro says his opinion won’t make a difference.

"If they think they need it what are you going to do? I can't say ‘Oh you better take it out!’ They're not going to listen to me,” says Monteiro.

Town officials expect the consultant’s report within a couple months. Leamington maintains this is strictly an information gathering period.