Hoskins wants to ban Ontario hospitals from being renamed for donors
Province wants veto over hospital name changes — and ban on wealthy donors renaming them.

TheStar.com
Feb. 1, 2017
Robert Benzie

Queen’s Park wants to ban hospitals from being renamed at the behest of rich donors, the Star has learned.

Concerned about wealthy people and big corporations getting entire hospitals rechristened in exchange for philanthropic contributions, Health Minister Eric Hoskins is proposing that any such changes be cleared by him.

Hoskins says “the new name must not include the corporate or business name of a corporate donor, or the family name of an individual or family donor, (or) the family name of an individual.”

His decree would not apply to hospital wings, individual buildings on a campus, research centres, treatment facilities or health services programs.

That’s according to a draft copy of a four-page directive sent to hospitals for their feedback last week.

“The purpose of this directive is to . . . ensure the names used by hospitals reflect their role as publicly supported organizations operating within a universal, publicly funded health care system,” the internal memo states.

“Currently, hospitals have the discretion to choose their own names . . . (but) recent amendments to the Public Hospitals Act . . . will, once proclaimed, effectively require that hospitals seek prior approval of the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care for corporate changes, including new corporate names,” it continues.

“This directive governs new names (including business and corporate names) of hospital corporations, hospital sites, individual hospital buildings in cases where the building comprises all or substantially all of a hospital site, and alliances, partnerships, and other associations between or among hospital corporations.”

It would also affect “names for new corporations, sites, or associations, as well as new names (i.e. name changes) for existing corporations, sites, or associations.”

Any new names must reflect the geographic location of the hospital, its mandate, history, local community or “the culture or heritage of the persons served by the hospital.”

The catalyst for the edict appears to be the December 2015 renaming of Toronto East General Hospital.

Myron and Berna Garron donated $50 million to East General, the main campus of which is now the Michael Garron Hospital.

That was to honour their son who died in 1975 at age 13 of a rare cancer. The boy’s dying wish was that he would not be forgotten.

Owners of a successful auto parts company, the Garrons also donated $30 million to the Hospital for Sick Children in 2010 for the Garron Family Cancer Centre.

While Hoskins had no issue with the family’s generosity, he is worried about publicly funded hospitals being renamed after corporations such as Coca-Cola or Molson Coors.

The Ontario Hospital Association, which represents more than 150 hospitals in the province, warned this “may inadvertently trigger a freeze on large-scale philanthropic efforts.”

That’s because donors may “reconsider and/or decline to make major gifts because they fear arbitrary government intervention in a matter which they believe is really between them and their family, and their hospital,” said the OHA’s Samantha Grant.

“Given the relentless pressure to contain costs, the reliance of the hospital sector on fundraising and philanthropy has never been greater,” said Grant.

“In particular, philanthropy plays a significant role in paying for the cost of major capital projects, particularly new construction and the renovation of existing hospital facilities,” she said.

“Experience from other parts of Canada suggests that in general, people are reluctant to donate to a hospital if they don’t have confidence that the donation will be used for the purpose for which it is intended.”