There are renewed calls for an independent report into the necessity of a building a new convention centre in downtown Halifax.

Nova Scotia’s auditor general says the provincial government should have ordered an independent second opinion on the $500-million convention center in Halifax before pushing the development ahead.

The morning after the A-G’s Fall report, critics of the centre and opposition parties are calling for additional data.

“It is a disgrace that any public servant would put forth numbers that were complete at odds with the real trends,” said Heritage Trust’s Philip Pacey. “There are very serious problems with those estimates. They just do not stand up to scrutiny.”

In yesterday’s report, Lapointe said 10-year market projections for the project prepared by Trade Centre Ltd. in 2010, lacked appropriate analysis given the size of the proposal. Lapointe said the Crown corporation’s analysis included growth and market share assumptions that weren’t adequately supported.

Lapointe said factors such as the abundance of convention centres in Canada, new competitors and a stagnant convention market were ignored.

Both the Liberal and the Progressive Conservative parties say they are still in favour of the convention centre.

Liberal MLA Andrew Younger said the A-G’s report is all the more reason to get plausible data.

“Show people that there is a business case for this. Then obviously, if the study shows there isn’t a business case than we need to address that at that time,” said Younger.

The PC Party said it doesn’t like what the criticism says about the government.

“The auditor general correctly points out that the government, generally, does not do independent reviews before it makes major financial decisions,”

Premier Darrell Dexter said eight studies contributed to the government report, so why not get a ninth just because the auditor general questions the conclusions?

“I have no reasons to disbelieve those projects,” said Dexter. “We are satisfied with the work that was done.”

The provincial and municipal governments have each committed $56 million to the convention centre, while the federal government has promised $51 million. Lapointe says the provincial government has rejected his call for an independent review, saying it is satisfied with the projections it has.