Peter Munk said his donation to a Toronto heart hospital is a “debt to repay” to Canada for taking in his family after the Second World War.

On Tuesday, $100 million was contributed to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, said to be the largest contribution to a Canadian hospital in history.

In a long, impassioned speech, Munk, founder and former chairman of Barrick Gold Corporation, extolled Canadian graciousness he experienced when he emigrated here in the late 1940s.

“When you thank me for what I’ve done for Toronto, and you thank me for what I can do for this community, it doesn’t begin to express my immense gratitude for what this country has done for me and my family,” said Munk, who was born in Hungary. “You opened the door. You gave us everything,” he added, referring to Canada as “paradise.”

Munk said he wants Toronto to be a beacon of innovative health care.

“It’s critical to make the hospital a point of excellence for Canada and we have a chance to do so,” he said.

The historic gift will be invested in efforts to optimize the quality of care and improve health outcomes for those struggling with cardiovascular diseases, both domestically and abroad.

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Holding the platform together is artificial intelligence, technology that could pre-emptively save lives.

“We could monitor a patient’s heart beat every second of the day,” said Dr. Barry Rubin, medical director of the cardiac centre. “That system, using an AI-based protocol, could do things that no human could do, which is identify problems that may be on the horizon.”

Someone at risk of a lethal heart attack, for example, would be treated “before that catastrophic event ever happened.

“When people around the world think of artificial intelligence and cardiovascular health care delivery, they will, and should, think of Toronto,” Rubin said.

AI is better equipped to manage, trace and detect problems, he said. And further, information like clinical notes, blood tests and X-rays, will be consolidated into one location, he added.

Ontario Health and Long-Term Care Minister Eric Hoskins called Munk’s gift “unprecedented.”

“Simply put, it is going to change lives,” he said. “This is going to allow the Munk Centre to leap forward beyond its peers around the world.”

The research and talent at the hospital wouldn’t have been possible without Munk’s commitment over the past 20 years, he added.

Since 1993, the Munk family has provided over $175 million to the cardiac centre and the University Health Network, a multidisciplinary research organization that has four Toronto hospitals under its umbrella. The cardiac centre, which is based out of Toronto General and Western Hospitals, opened in 1997.

About 163,000 patients circulate through the hospital every year, Rubin said.

“Mr. Munk was the world’s leading gold miner and he expects we will be world’s leading heart centre, and that’s the mission I will deliver,” he said. “Anybody can cut a cheque, but they (the Munk family) do philanthropy with a deep purpose. You can hear it in the way he speaks about Canada.”

Generous givers

Other notable donations to Toronto and GTA hospitals:

$130 million: Rogers family to the Hospital for Sick Children, University Health Network and the University of Toronto, to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, 2014

$100 million: Peter Munk to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, 2017

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$50 million: Myron and Berna Garron to Toronto East General Hospital (main campus now renamed Michael Garron Hospital), 2015

$50 million: Slaight Family Foundation to the University Health Network, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, St. Michael’s Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital, 2013

$50 million: Joseph and Wolf Lebovic to Mount Sinai Hospital, 2006

$40 million: Peter Gilgan to the Hospital for Sick Children, 2014

$37.5 million: Linda Campbell, Gaye Farncombe and Susan Grange to Princess Margaret Hospital, 2008

$37 million: Peter Munk to Toronto General Hospital, 2006

$35 million: Larry and Judy Tanenbaum to Mount Sinai Hospital, 2013

$30 million: Peter Gilgan to St Michael’s Hospital, 2014

$30 million: Myron and Berna Garron to the Hospital for Sick Children, 2010

$30 million: Arthur and Sonia Labatt to the Hospital for Sick Children, 2007

$25 million: Li Ka-shing to St Michael’s Hospital, 2011

$25 million: Larry Tanenbaum to Mount Sinai Hospital, 2006

$25 million: Li Ka-shing (Canada) Foundation to St. Michael’s Hospital, 2005

$25 million: Audrey Campbell and daughters (Thomson family) to Institute for Breast Cancer Research at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital, 2004

$20 million: CI Financial to Orthopaedic & Arthritic Institute at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, 2005

$15 million: Muzzo and de Gasperis families to the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, 2017

Source: Star Library

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