Challenge kicks off with $2M donation
Heads up, Corporate Canada — ECN Capital has thrown down the gauntlet.
ECN president Jim Nikopoulos and CEO Steve Hudson hosted a power breakfast Wednesday, challenging business leaders across Canada to be part of an important fundraiser.
It all benefits The Centre of Urban Health Solutions (C-UHS) at St. Michael’s Hospital — the only facility in the world devoted to research and health care for the most marginalized in society.
At C-UHS — pronounced “See Us” — doctors and researchers take a sciencebased approach to reducing poverty, and work with those experiencing homelessness, addiction, and physical and mental illnesses.
A new initiative to raise $25 million for C-UHS got off to a great start with Nikopoulos’ announcement that finance company ECN was kicking things off with a $2-million donation.
Nikopoulos spoke to a room full of business and finance leaders and captains of industry — each of whom had paid a $10,000 charitable donation to attend — and challenged Corporate Canada to step up for the C-UHS cause.
When it was his turn to speak to the group, Mayor John Tory praised St. Michael’s Hospital for making the vital connection between poverty and people’s health.
“The most important issue facing our city is the disparity between those who are comfortable and those who struggle,” said Tory, adding we all have a moral and practical responsibility to be part of the overall well-being of the city.
Dr. Stephen Hwang, director of C-UHS, stated that all at the centre have, “A fundamental belief in creating a fair society for everyone in Toronto.”
To that end, he said, “Our goal is nothing less than to disrupt the cycle of poverty and curb the needless suffering and health consequences that are the result of that poverty.”
The bold mission at C-UHS, he said, has five key elements: interrupt chronic homelessness, remove barriers to certain medicines, disrupt the opioid crisis sweeping across the country, mitigate the health effects of poverty for children and young people, and improve Indigenous health.
After the breakfast, Mayor Tory reiterated the challenge to corporations.
“I will be placing a high priority on this going forward, and that will include an invitation to the private sector to join what I call a crusade, to take this on. We will take this on. We can make a big difference in a short period of time. It’s just a matter of whether the will is there, because the wealth is there, the generosity is there, the intelligence is there, the creativity is there.
“It’s just a matter of whether we get together and do something about it.”