Press release
Keeping the Shriners Hospital of Canada in Montreal:
A decision acknowledging the exceptional quality
of Montreal's medical heritage
Montreal , July 5, 2005 On behalf of its members, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal welcomes the decision to keep the Shriners Hospital of Canada in Montreal. I join with all the members of the Quebec delegation to express the enormous satisfaction we feel regarding the decision of the members of the Shrine Organization who are meeting in Baltimore today. We are proud to have convinced the Organization's delegates that it is in the best interests of the children to keep the Shriners Hospital in Montreal. The goal of all the partners is now to pursue a fruitful collaboration with the Shriners to develop this extraordinary medical heritage for the greater benefit of not only Quebec children needing orthopaedic care but also those coming from across Canada, the Northeast United States, and sometimes even other continents, declared Isabelle Hudon, president and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.
This decision which will allow the metropolis to benefit from a major investment of $100 million and a facility at the cutting edge of orthopaedic technology acknowledges the true value of the fertile eighty-year relationship between the Shriners and the Montreal medical community, notably with the two faculties of medicine, the Montreal Children's Hospital, the Hôpital Sainte-Justine, and the research institutes. The undeniable concentration of talent in Montreal and the synergies that promotes have made the Shriners Hospital one of Quebec's greatest medical success stories. These were clearly the strongest foundations on which to build the Shriners' new Canadian facility. In addition, the construction of their new hospital close to the new McGill University Health Centre will nurture the complementary relationship between these two facilities, continued Hudon.
On behalf of the Board of Trade's board of directors and its members, I would like to thank everyone concerned including, in particular, the managers of the McGill University Health Centre and the Montreal Shriners Hospital for Children, the City of Montreal, and the Quebec government, but also Montreal's entire business community, which mobilized its forces in support of this cause. This experience demonstrates once again that, when we pool our efforts, we can accomplish great things! concluded Hudon.
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has some 7,000 members. Its primary mission is to represent the interests of the business community of Greater Montreal and to provide individuals, merchants and businesses of all sizes with a variety of specialized services to help them achieve their full potential in terms of innovation, productivity and competitiveness. The Board of Trade is Quebec's leading private economic development organization.
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Source:
Sylvie Paquette
Coordinator, Media relations
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Tel.: (514) 871-4000, ext. 4015
sylvie.paquette@ccmm.qc.ca