Immigration Minister Gerry Byrne says the federal government has turned control of hotel rooms reserved for Ukrainian refugees over to the Association for New Canadians.

The issue was first highlighted by Byrne late last November.

He says since October 11 of last year, 25 hotel rooms in St. John’s have been reserved. However, nobody has been using them, yet the feds have been paying for the spaces.

Byrne says that’s because it was “impossible” for Ukrainians to know about the program, let alone access it, because of the way it was organized.

Byrne estimates that about half a million dollars has been spent by the federal government on empty hotel rooms.

Now that the ANC has taken over management of the rooms, Byrne states that all of them are filled.

He says there are now 25 Ukrainian families occupying rooms that otherwise would have been left vacant for a maximum stay of 14 days.

Byrne says that federal program will end on March 31.