A Winnipeg restaurateur says the city is harming his business by allowing a photo radar officer to occupy a prime parking spot in front of his eatery every day, even during peak business hours.

Shea Ritchie, owner of Chaise Café and Lounge, posted a Facebook video on Saturday of a male officer sitting in a van on Provencher Boulevard, right outside his restaurant.

​Ritchie said the man, who was operating a laptop inside the van, refused to move the vehicle to the other side of the street.

A photo radar van is often parked outside Chaise Café and Lounge on Provencher Boulevard, including on Saturdays, according to owner Shea Ritchie. (CBC) but he is especially frustrated when it's parked during peak business hours. ​He said the van has been seen outside the restaurant on any given day, at any time throughout the day,

He predicts the occupied parking space is costing him upwards of $600 a night in lost business on Saturdays.

"This is my busiest day of the week. I'm dead on the other days. If people don't support me on the weekend, I don't have any money to pay my rent for all the other days I have a loss," Ritchie told CBC News on Monday.

"They don't realize that one day of being busy doesn't cover all of your bills and give you this fabulous income. It means you're, like, just barely getting by."

Ritchie argued that another restaurant in the area, Chez Sophie, shut down last week because customers don't like to park too far away.

"Do I really need the city making it harder to get by?!" he wrote in a post accompanying his Facebook video.

"The winter is slow enough already I don't need somebody driving up, seeing there are no spots available and moving on to a different location."

Shea Ritchie, owner of Chaise Café and Lounge, posted a Facebook video on Saturday of a traffic officer sitting in a van on Provencher Boulevard, right outside his restaurant. (CBC) He said the man in the van argued that Ritchie can afford to lose some customers.

"I explained the story to him he looks and says, 'Oh, look at your car.' He says, like, 'You drive a pretty nice car,'" Ritchie said.

"He said something to the effect that 'You can afford to lose a couple of customers. I think you'll be fine.' It was completely insensitive."

A Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson told CBC News that photo radar operators are contracted by the City of Winnipeg and "are exempt under the parking bylaw just as any City of Winnipeg police vehicle would be."

Ritchie said the city should ban traffic camera cars from deliberately taking away parking spots on Provencher Boulevard from small, independent businesses such as his restaurant.

"I pay enough taxes I don't need the city making my local business suffer from their careless indifference," he wrote.

Ritchie has filed a complaint with the help of his city councillor, St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard, who is looking into what happened and who the man works for.

Allard told CBC News there should be rules about where photo radar and other traffic vehicles can park.