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55 B C B U S I N E S S . C A S E P T E M B E R 2 0 24 B lu e t r e e P h o t o g r a p h y ; B e n n e t t W h i t n e ll; O l e k s a n d r P a n a s o v s k y i / N o u n P r oj e c t FOR THE LAST 20-plus years, Eric Peter- son and Christina Munck have worked tire- lessly to nurture the Tula Foundation from the ground up. "If people ask us whether we're philan- thropists, we always say no," says Peterson, who co-founded the nonprofit with his wife, Munck, after selling his medical imag- ing business for an estimated $300 million in 2001. "We're more like operators." The work that Peterson was doing prior to the Tula Foundation was not unlike what the couple is doing through the char- ity today: trying to solve problems in the public interest. One of Tula's first projects was a public health and nursing program in Guatemala that's still working to improve health-care services for rural populations in the coun- try today. Activities are carried out by Tula's sister charity, TulaSalud, which ran an educational program last year (with sup- port from the WHO) that helped over 1,000 Indigenous students receive nurse training in Guatemala. "People that I first met 20 years ago, they're still working for us," Peterson says. "That's the training legacy that we have in Guatemala, and that's the training legacy that we could have here." Peterson and Munck have used their personal funds to fuel Tula's efforts since its establishment. For instance, Tula has acquired land for conservation through the Nature Con- servancy of Canada, supported several university programs (including UVic's Envi- ronmental Law Centre) and set up ecologi- cal observatories like the Hakai Institute on Calvert Island and the Quadra Centre "think tank" on Quadra Island, near Camp- bell River. These places operate as hubs for research, education, collaboration and community outreach. Eric Peterson and Christina Munck have been donating their personal funds to the Tula Foundation since they established the charity in 2001. This year, they made their final donation—here's what that means for Tula The foundation works through partner- ships by engaging universities, scientists, researchers and professors, government agencies and First Nations in its projects. Its ocean observation project on Calvert Island, for example, has partners in Fisher- ies and Oceans Canada, UBC and UVic, and it's using underwater drones (called "ocean gliders") to collect long-term data that can help model the ocean and understand cli- mate change better. "The amount of stuff I did [on Calvert Island]—pouring concrete, docks, labora- tories, all sorts of things," Peterson says. "We got to make our own electricity there, we got to make water. We got our own sew- age system." It's not the kind of work most philanthropists are willing to roll up their sleeves for, but Peterson and Munck are passionate about advancing environmental research in B.C. and beyond. The entrepre- neurs are so hands-on with their business that if someone visits one of Tula's facilities, they can often expect to be greeted by one of its founders. But this year marks the couple's last donation, this time of $92 million. The amount isn't even half of what they've given over the years, according to Peterson. "In the early years, the solution to financ- ing and everything in the Tula Foundation was easy: it was 'Ask Eric and Christina for more money and they'll give it to you.' But we're having to advise the foundation to pivot a little bit at this point," he explains. Tula is their legacy, and they want to ensure that its numerous projects will stay afloat for years to come. This might be their last donation, but their work is not over yet. "We're not the same age that we were in 2001 when we started out," Peterson says. "So the message that we're giving to the foundation is that, to some extent, kids, this is what you have to work with. The foundation needs to spend this money wisely and it needs to work toward lon- ger-term stability. We really want to work together over the next five years to figure out how we can do that." GREEN VIEW Tula's ecological observatory on Quadra Island is a base for scientific research and collaboration In 2025, Squamish residents will no longer need to commute to Whistler or North Vancouver for a CT scan—because Squamish General Hospital is finally getting its very own CT scanner. The estimated $6.5-million project should enable up to 7,000 scans per year. Contributions, according to Vancouver Coastal Health ( VCH), are as follows: • $2.8 million from the provincial government, through VCH • $2.6 million from the Sea to Sky Regional Hospital District • $1.1 million from the Squamish Hospital Foundation, with $900,000 of that coming from local energy supplier Woodfibre LNG "With Woodfibre LNG's generous donation towards our long-awaited CT scanner at Squamish General Hospital, this much-needed medical service is finally a reality for Squamish," said Karen Vanzella, president of the Squamish Hospital Foundation, in a release. In the Clear Squamish gets approved for its first CT scanner

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