Taseko Mines has announced that it is donating $1.5 million to the $85-million mental health facility that will be part of the expanded Vancouver Ge
Taseko Mines has announced that it is donating $1.5 million to the $85-million mental health facility that will be part of the expanded Vancouver General Hospital which is scheduled to break ground October 2014.
The new facility is named after one Vancouver’s best known entrepreneurs and will be known as the Joseph & Rosalie Segal Family Health Centre.
Taseko is the company working to get the New Prosperity Mine proposal west of Williams Lake off the ground and operates a number of other mines in the province.
Brian Battison, vice-president of corporate affairs for Taseko Mines said the donation is meant to help those in need of mental health services.
He stated that company CEO Russell Hallbauer has seen the effects of mental illness on communities and is also a former VGH-University of B.C. hospital board member.
“As a big employer in a small community you get to know a lot of people and you get to know a lot about them,” Battison said in an interview with Vancouver’s 24 Hours. “A lot about the celebrations and the difficulties that people have and you try to get each other through those difficulties... (he suggested) if he was ever in a position to help people in some of those struggles then he would do so.”
He said the company often makes donations around the province, including to the Telus World of Science.
“I think Taseko’s a pretty generous company from my observations of it,” Battison added. “I guess cynical people will do what they do best, but there’s no foundation for that suggestion.”
Source: Vancouver 24 hours
