Co-founder and Director of the Tula Foundation Eric Peterson poses in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Tula Foundation
VICTORIA – A pair of British Columbia philanthropists are donating the last $92 million from a “windfall” sale of their medical imaging company to the charitable foundation they founded.
Eric Peterson says the donation with his wife Christina Munck to the Tula Foundation is the beginning of “handing off the baton” and planning for the future of the organization.
The Tula Foundation, named after one of the couple’s dogs, supports several charitable initiatives, including the Hakai Institute, a Canadian science institute researching coastal ecology, and the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria.
Peterson says the couple originally started the foundation after the multimillion-dollar sale in 2001 of his privately owned medical imaging company, Mitra, and they were advised that they would feel like idiots if they died with money in the bank.
He told a news conference in Victoria that he would like to see the foundation sustained well into the future.
The couple has transferred two parcels of land totalling 22 hectares, to the BC Parks Foundation for future incorporation into the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy, which is collaboratively managed by the province and the Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv First Nations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2024.
