'Love, Scarborough' campaign seeks to close health-care funding gap by raising $100M
Scarborough is asking Toronto to share the love when it comes to hospital donations.
In a new campaign that launched this month, the Scarborough Health Network (SHN) Foundation says their facilities receive less than one per cent of hospital donations in Toronto—even though it represents about 25 per cent of the city’s population.
“The hospitals in Scarborough have been chronically underfunded for decades now. And we see that in the aging infrastructure, and just in the lack of spaces to expand,” Dr. Collette Rutherford, Corporate Chief and Medical Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at SHN, told CP24 Friday morning.
“These donations are absolutely critical in terms of upgrades, expansions, new programming, and so we're reaching out to Toronto, as a as a larger community, to help us and to support us in raising this $100 million to better serve and continue to provide excellent care to the people of Scarborough.”
The campaign, named “Love, Scarborough,” asks “when will we all be treated equally,” pointing out that most diverse neighborhoods are the most ignored when it comes to healthcare.
The Scarborough Health Network's 'Love, Scarborough' fundraising campaign is looking to raise $100M. (Twitter/Scarborough Health Network Foundation)
Rutherford says that more than half of the one million people who live in the area are newcomers to Canada and about 75 per cent of the population are visible minorities. And yet, these newcomers are being treated in the oldest hospitals.
After reviewing financial data published to the Canadian Revenue Agency, the SHN found that hospital foundations in the City of Toronto received donations of about $1 billion. Officials said the SHN foundation’s share, however, was less than one per cent of that.
The mass media marketing campaign “Love, Scarborough” hopes to change that. In 26 letters—one for every letter of the alphabet—community leaders, patients, doctors, staff and volunteers talk about what the SHN means to them and why they choose to call Scarborough home.
The campaign has been widely supported by various partners, including Bell Media, and politicians like Toronto Mayor John Tory, who last week raised the SHN Foundation’s flag and declared “Love, Scarborough Day.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.