Opposition leader Tony Wakeham is calling on the Auditor General to investigate the provincial government’s lease of the old Airport Comfort Inn in St. John’s.

Last year, government announced that it would be leasing the old hotel for three years for transitional housing at a cost of $21 million.

Now operating as Horizons 106, the building contains a number of rooms for people who would otherwise have difficulty finding a place to live, and include a variety of health care and other services.

Wakeham says the former hotel property is valued at just $3.7 million, but the provincial government leased the building for $21 million “without issuing a public call for proposals.” He claims the lease “dramatically inflated the property’s value, which was then sold for a likely profit.”

He charges that that amounts to “a blank cheque to a Liberal-connected business, with no transparency,” and no consultation.

He’s calling for the AG to open the books on the deal.