After the Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse in 2013 Ušakovs announced on November that he, unlike Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, will not be resigning as he believed he could best serve the interests of his voters by remaining in office. Ušakovs called the resignation of Dombrovskis "a cynical attempt to kill two birds with one stone" and criticized him of avoiding solving current problems. In December 2013 Ušakovs was asked by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development to provide explanations for "ineffective construction control in the capital".