A Canadian billionaire and homebuilder just gave the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) the single largest donation in the hospital’s history.
Peter Gilgan, the founder of Mattamy Homes, donated $100 million to SickKids to help redevelop the hospital’s campus. This includes building a new tower on University Avenue, which will be named the Peter Gilgan Family Patient Care Tower in Gilgan’s honour.
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Specifically, the tower will be used for critical care and inpatient units. Features include private one-family rooms, mental-health beds, advanced diagnostic imaging facilities, and an expanded emergency department, CTV reports.
“I’m in a privileged position to be able to make this gift, and I know it’s going to be used to help children today and in the future live longer and healthier lives,” Gilgan said in a news release.
The $100-million donation supports the SickKids VS Limits campaign, which was launched in 2017. It aims to raise $1.3 billion in five years to update and rebuild the facility. The oldest part of the hospital was built in 1949, CityNews reports, so an upgrade is much-needed in order for this area of the hospital to support innovative technologies used by staff and patients.
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Thanks to Gilgan’s generous gift, the SickKids VS Limits campaign has now raised $914 million, which is 70 per cent of its $1.3-billion goal, CTV noted.
This isn’t the first time Gilgan has donated to SickKids. The first was in 2012 when he gifted the hospital with $40 million to build a new research centre. His two whopping SickKids donations now make him the largest health-care benefactor in Canada.
“We are extraordinarily grateful to Peter Gilgan and the Peter Gilgan Foundation for their ongoing philanthropic leadership and dedication to SickKids,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO, SickKids. “Our vision for the children’s hospital of the future includes the construction of a state-of-the-art building, matching our world-class care with family-friendly spaces for patients and their loved ones. This gift is unparalleled and will help ensure our vision becomes reality.”
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The first of two SickKids buildings will break ground in October 2019. The first will be the Patient Support Centre, which will house the SickKids Learning Institute and a Simulation Centre for hands-on teaching. The second will be the Peter Gilgan Family Patient Care Tower.
