Montreal hospitals receive major donation

Montreal's two teaching hospital networks announced Monday that they will receive a $4 millon donation from the Royal Bank of Canada for new facilities.

The money will be given to a joint fundraising campaign created by the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral (CHUM) and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) to collect donations from the corporate sector.

RBC's donation will be used to fund new facilites, which includes the new MUHC superhospital currently under construction.

The head of the CHUM expressed his appreciation for the financial support.

"With this donation, RBC is contributing to a healthy future for all Quebecers," said Christian Paire, director general of the CHUM, in a statement released Monday.

"Apart from improving the quality of health services, this project is an important contributor to economic activity in Montreal and all of Quebec."

Paire's counterpart at the MUHC, Dr. Arthur Porter, says the hospital has raised about $200 million in corporate donations so far. He says he hopes this recent $4 million donation will encourage other companies to contribute.

"There's something that really happens when you actually have a shovel in the ground and you can actually see buildings going up, and so I think we're going to see a lot more contributions of this magnitude," Porter said.

Crews broke ground fpr the MUHC superhospital last spring. Porter says the project is on schedule, with the excavation nearly completed. Construction should begin within the next two weeks.

The MUHC superhospital is being built at the Glen Yards site, near the Vendme metro station, in Montreal's west-end.