For Immediate Release
March 18, 2025
Just a year into a $21 million, three-year lease, NL NDP Leader Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre) is concerned about the future of Horizons 106, also known as the Airport Inn, which has been sold to Ontario hoteliers.
AllNewfoundlandLabrador revealed that Clayton Hospitality Group sold three Comfort Inn hotels to a Brampton-based numbered company. Dinn calls the lack of transparency deeply concerning.
“There are so many questions about this sale. We cannot forget that government rushed into this deal just to get the media off their backs about growing encampments,” said Dinn. “Government, instead of buying the building, decided to sign this inflated lease, $21 million over three years, which made the sale more profitable. Was this why government chose to lease instead of buying the hotel outright?”
Dinn says that if government had a real plan for long-term housing solutions, they would have invested in a purpose-built facility with proper transitional supports rather than leasing a hotel from their donors.
“It is good to hear that the company will continue running this facility as transitional housing with End Homelessness, but what is in the contract concerns me,” said Dinn. “Does this remain transitional housing for a certain number of years? Could it be reverted back into a hotel, forcing people out? The fact that the government has not said a word about this sale, or this contract is unacceptable.
“All this sale does is leave me with more questions. Instead of keeping money in the province, it is now flowing to Brampton. The millions wasted on this lease could have funded a purpose-built facility or supported End Homelessness St. John’s and other non-profits doing real work on the ground. We have repeatedly called on government to act on housing, implement rent control, invest in non-market housing, and strengthen the Residential Tenancies Act, but they refuse to do anything. Anything that is except help their buddies.
“Does this government actually want to solve the housing crisis? I have serious doubts.”
-30-
For further information, contact Stephanie Curran, Media and Communications Officer, NDP Caucus at 330-0328 (o), or stephaniecurran@gov.nl.ca