Peter Munk is set to write a large cheque this afternoon in favour of his pet project at the University of Toronto, the Munk Centre for International Studies. His signing arm must be getting tired. This gift follows a slew of recent philanthropic gestures by the 78-year-old gold mogul and is considered by friends and associates to be part of a major legacy-building campaign. He has already declared that he does not intend to leave all of his fortune to his three children.
So just how big is the cheque to the Munk Centre? The amount, said to be in cash rather than shares in his Barrick Gold Corp., was being kept tightly under wraps but we hear a good guess is somewhere around the $6-million mark, perhaps higher. The gift is an endowment to sustain the activities and programs at the centre -- call it operating income.
Late last month, Mr. Munk announced he was giving $18.5-million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a long-time favourite of his. And last May, he donated $37-million to the Toronto General Hospital, the largest gift yet to a Canadian hospital, where he has a cardiac care centre named after him.
But those who know Mr. Munk say the place to watch for future largesse from the Barrick chairman is in the arena of public policy. His foundation recently pulled together an advisory board to make strategic gifts to support public policy dialogue. The board is chaired by former Canadian ambassador to Washington, Allan Gotlieb, and counts among its members Maclean's editor and publisher Ken Whyte, Mr. Munk's wife, Melanie, and son Anthony, Barrick executive vice-president Vince Borg and Rudyard Griffiths, director of the Dominion Institute.
For now, the Munk public policy board is staying low profile. But word is that some very large funding -- amounts that dwarf the gift to the Munk Centre today -- are in the works.