SASKATOON – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall joined the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan (CHFS) to announce a $50 million donation and a new name for the children’s hospital and the foundation.

The largest-ever gift of money to the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan was made by the Jim Pattison Foundation. In honour of this generous donation, the hospital will be named the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital. The CHFS will also be renamed the Jim Pattison Children’s Foundation.

Jim Pattison (pictured) is a Vancouver-based businessman and philanthropist originally from Luseland, Saskatchewan. He is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Jim Pattison Group, the second largest privately held company in Canada.

“We want to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for this extraordinary gift that will benefit the children and families of Saskatchewan for generations to come,” Wall said.

“Mr. Pattison’s generous donation, together with the $235.5 million contribution from the province, and the impressive fundraising of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan, will ensure that a world-class children’s hospital will finally become a reality in Saskatchewan.”

Once completed, the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital will better meet the needs of Saskatchewan’s children, expecting mothers, and families by enhancing patient care and enabling the ongoing recruitment and retention of pediatric specialists.

With two years remaining before the hospital opens its doors, the Saskatoon Health Region has already successfully recruited more than 70 per cent of the pediatric specialists it will need to staff the province’s new maternal and children’s hospital.

Active recruitment of pediatric specialists continues and 13 interested candidates have made site visits to Saskatoon since January.

Construction of the new 176 bed, 409,032 square foot hospital reached 55 per cent completion at the end of April. The Government of Saskatchewan is contributing $235.5 million toward the total project cost of $285.2 million, and $21.4 million will come from interest in investments by the Saskatoon Health Region.

In addition, the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan is contributing $75 million through their capital campaign. The project remains on time and on budget, and is scheduled for completion in 2019, the government said.

“This is an extraordinary and generous gift that will allow for ongoing, sustainable funding for the new provincial children’s hospital,” CHFS president and CEO Brynn Boback-Lane said. “Mr. Pattison brings with him today funds for new research initiatives, immeasurable support for endowment and fellowships and the ability for the Foundation to ensure that the right equipment and enhancements are in place for Saskatchewan’s youngest patients and moms to be. This will make this hospital truly world-class.”