Font Size:

SickKids Foundation today announced the largest gift in the history of The Hospital for Sick Children and the largest philanthropic investment in children’s cardiac medicine and research in North America. 

Arthur and Sonia Labatt pledged an historic $30 million to SickKids with $25 million establishing The Labatt Family Heart Centre and a $5 million endowment that furthers their support of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre.

“Arthur and Sonia Labatt have long been two of the most visionary partners of SickKids,” said Michael O’Mahoney, President of SickKids Foundation. “Their investment is a powerful recognition of the importance of philanthropy in furthering our understanding and treatment of childhood illness and disease.”

Today’s gift announcement coincides with the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids.

The Labatt’s investment will be used to create a multidisciplinary heart centre, providing the necessary framework to achieve world-class excellence in paediatric cardiac care. Named in honour of its founding supporters, The Labatt Family Heart Centre will provide state-of-the-art care to children with congenital heart disease, the most common birth defect and leading cause of birth-defect related deaths worldwide. The Centre will play a key role in educating the next leaders of cardiac care delivery in Canada and around the world, and research programs will focus on both congenital heart disease and the early origins of adult onset heart disease.

“Our motivation to support SickKids is simple and straightforward.  We feel that healthy children lead more fulfilling and productive lives.  And a more productive society has a global impact,” said Sonia Labatt.  “We are privileged in being able to offer support to an institution that provides some of the best paediatric health care in the world.”

This is the largest philanthropic gift the Labatts have ever made. The Labatt’s gift includes a $5 million matching fund as an incentive to encourage additional philanthropy from other individuals with an interest in children’s health.  The matching fund will be used to establish three Academic Chairs and four Fellowships in paediatric cardiac medicine and research.

Set to open in the spring of 2007, the goal of The Labatt Family Heart Centre is to further the understanding of paediatric cardiology through an integration of clinical practice and investigative laboratory research.

“On behalf of the entire SickKids family, I want to thank the Labatt’s for their generous support of the work being done at SickKids,” said Mary Jo Haddad, President of The Hospital for Sick Children. “We struggle at times to get people to understand that children’s health care is very different from adult health care.  The Labatt’s gift validates the importance of understanding the difference.”

In 1997, the Labatts presented SickKids with an unprecedented donation of $5 million to help establish the world-leading Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre. As the first centre of its kind in Canada dedicated to basic science and the first in North America to focus on both paediatric and adult brain tumours, the goal was to create an institution where scientists and clinicians from SickKids, the University Health Network and the University of Toronto could share ideas, resources and equipment, and integrate groundbreaking lab research with patients being treated at SickKids.

An additional $5 million from today’s gift will go towards the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, increasing their support that has transformed the understanding of and ability to treat brain tumours.

“Since our first investment in SickKids 10 years ago, we have witnessed results from Dr. Rutka and his team that are above and beyond anything we had anticipated,” said Arthur Labatt.  “This concrete impact on both their medical advances and scientific discovery inspired us to build on these strengths with our continued support of the Brain Tumour Research Centre and the establishment of the Paediatric Heart Centre.  Our hope is that the new heart centre under the able guidance of Dr. Redington will not only help hundreds of children from across Canada who suffer from congenital heart disease, but through its cardiovascular research, will further the understanding of paediatric cardiology around the world.”

Arthur Labatt co-founded Trimark Financial Corporation, now AIM Trimark Investments, one of Canada’s largest mutual fund companies. He was elected to Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in March 1997. Highlights of his volunteer activities include directorships at SickKids Foundation, Parkinson Foundation of Canada, Canadian Opera Company, Young People’s Theatre, Toronto French School and the African Medical and Research Foundation.  In October 2004, Mr. Labatt was installed as Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario, a position he continues to hold today.  For his outstanding business and community leadership, Mr. Labatt was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in July 1996.

Dr. Sonia Labatt is an Associate Faculty Member at the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto. Both her teaching and research focus on issues of corporate environmental management. Dr. Labatt’s volunteer activities included directorships at the National Ballet of Canada and the Wellesley Hospital Foundation.  She also was a director of the Art Gallery of Ontario and co-chaired Havergal College’s ‘Fund for Tomorrow’ campaign. Currently, Dr. Labatt is a director of World Wildlife Fund Canada, sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto and is a member of the Board of Trustees at SickKids.

[Download this announcement as a .pdf Press Release here. ]

[Return to top]