SickKids Foundation launches $2.5 billion Heal the Future campaign

SickKids Foundation, which raises money for The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, said on November 2 it has launched Heal the Future, a $2.5 billion campaign. It calls this the largest paediatric health-care fundraising campaign in the world. The foundation said more than $1.03 billion in donations and pledges has been committed since the quiet phase, when a charity collects gifts privately before going public, began on April 1, 2023. It said 134 donors have each committed $1 million or more, together $351 million.

The money is meant to speed up Precision Child Health, which SickKids says is a hospital-wide approach to care, not a single department or clinic. CP24 reported that chief executive Dr Ronald Cohn called it “next-generation care” and said the campaign will ensure the hospital delivers on that promise.

For comparison, the foundation said its previous campaign, which ended in March 2023, raised $1.7 billion from 1.3 million donors. That money is not spent at once. According to Charity Intelligence Canada, the foundation holds $1.8 billion in cash and investments, $818.1 million of it endowed, so that the capital is kept, and it grants the hospital a share each year: $133.3 million in fiscal 2026.

Charitable donations do not cover everything: in 2018 Ontario committed up to $2.4 billion to build a new SickKids facility, with further funds for the Project Horizon redevelopment to be raised through philanthropy.

To mark the launch, SickKids is staging an immersive theatre piece, I See You, with a public performance on November 20, 2026.

Sources: SickKids Foundation · SickKids · CP24 · Charity Intelligence Canada

Ontario signals no second New Deal for Toronto

Ontario does not appear ready to give Toronto a second financial deal. Colin D’Mello reported on X that Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the province is still “digesting” the first deal after the fall economic statement, its autumn budget update.

Global News reported that the 2023 deal’s operating agreements, which fund day-to-day costs, gave Toronto $200 million a year for homelessness and $110 million for transit. The deal’s term sheet, the terms a Toronto-Ontario working group recommended to Premier Ford and Mayor Chow on November 26, 2023, set $330 million over three years for the Finch West and Eglinton Crosstown light rail lines.

Ontario projects a deficit of $16.9 billion in 2026–27, falling to $6.7 billion by 2028–29. Rob Flack, the municipal affairs and housing minister, said no meeting on a new deal is scheduled. Whether the operating agreements will be renewed is not yet known.

Sources: Colin D’Mello on X · Global News · Government of Ontario

Brookfield and CPP Investments close US$5.2 billion LXP purchase

The Canadian Press reported on November 2, 2026 that Brookfield Asset Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) closed their purchase of LXP Industrial Trust, an American company that owns 107 industrial properties, about 52 million square feet, mostly in the Sunbelt and the Midwest. The deal valued LXP at about US$5.2 billion, including net debt (debts less cash) and preferred equity (shares paid before ordinary shares). Propmodo reported that shareholders’ US$61.20 a share in cash was a 12% premium to the 30-day average price, weighted by trading volume, through July 17.

The two bought LXP together, in cash. Its properties will join Brookfield’s global logistics platform, which has more than 850 properties in 20 countries. Lowell Baron, chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate, said the purchase reflects the firm’s conviction in the long-term fundamentals of the US industrial sector. Sophie van Oosterom, CPP Investments’ head of real estate, said it adds modern logistics properties to its US portfolio, and that LXP is well positioned to capture further value as logistics markets evolve.

CPP Investments invests the Canada Pension Plan’s fund to maximize returns without undue risk of loss. It had net assets of $793.3 billion at March 31, 2026, up from $714.4 billion a year earlier. LXP is now privately held, and its shares no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sources: CTV News (The Canadian Press) · Propmodo · BNN Bloomberg · CPP Investments · Brookfield and CPP Investments

Ontario alleges mass OSAP applications from single IP addresses

Global News reported that Ontario alleges, in court documents, that over half of last year’s student aid applications at two Academy of Learning colleges in North York and Brampton came from one IP address. At North York, the ministry alleges, 3,460 of 6,070 applications for 2025-26 (57%) shared an address; at Brampton East, 3,136 of 6,001 (52%). At a third campus, on Bay Street in Toronto, it was 1,736 of 6,966 (25%).

On May 1 the province made the campuses ineligible for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) for 2026-27, a decision the schools are challenging in court, The Canadian Press reported. The Academy of Learning has previously denied wrongdoing, and the allegations are unproven in court. The Academy told the ministry that shared addresses may mean several people live at one address.

Provincial OSAP grants to career colleges nearly doubled from 2023-24 to about $1 billion in 2024-25. The three barred campuses, Bay Street, North York and Brampton East, are Academy of Learning franchises with one parent company, Opulence Education Group. Together they accounted for one-fifth of that grant spending.

Minister Nolan Quinn has asked KPMG to audit the payments and referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police. Mr Quinn has said he will introduce legislation this fall.

Sources: Global News · CP24 (The Canadian Press)

Ontario fast-tracks Mayfair Gold's Fenn-Gib project but grants no permits

Ontario has named Mayfair Gold’s Fenn-Gib gold project, about 80 km east of Timmins, to receive designation under its One Project, One Process fast track for approvals. It is the fourth project to receive the designation. The fast track aims to halve government review times by giving developers a single provincial contact, The Northern Miner reported.

The mine would be in the north, but Mayfair’s shares trade in Toronto, on the TSX Venture Exchange, run by Toronto’s TMX Group. About 40% of the world’s public mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange, and they raised $16 billion in new shares in 2025, according to TMX.

Mayfair, a gold developer also listed on the NYSE American exchange in New York, puts the initial costs for the Fenn-Gib project at $450 million. Macquarie Bank, an Australian lender, has proposed a $300 million loan, about two-thirds of that, leaving Mayfair to arrange the rest.

The Northern Miner reported that the loan is not final: the bank is still checking the project, and the final loan contracts are not yet signed. It also reported that the designation does not itself grant the permits needed for construction. Construction is planned for 2028 to 2030, with production targeted to start in 2030.

Map: the Fenn-Gib project area near Matheson, about 80 km east of Timmins, and Toronto. © OpenStreetMap contributors

Sources: Government of Ontario · The Northern Miner · Mayfair Gold Corp. · TMX Group

$2.5 billion: the target of SickKids Foundation’s Heal the Future campaign, announced November 2, 2026. The foundation’s last campaign, which ended in March 2023, raised $1.7 billion from 1.3 million donors.

Professional and tech: 532 thousand jobs in 2024, up 11% from 479 in 2023. It is the highest in the years shown. Retail and wholesale: 510 thousand jobs. Finance and real estate: 452 thousand jobs. Health care: 420 thousand jobs. Manufacturing: 348 thousand jobs.

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, table 14-10-0384-01 (Toronto census metropolitan area, yearly averages)

• Weather: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers in the morning. Clearing in the afternoon. Wind becoming south 20 km/h early in the afternoon. High 20°C. Overnight low 12°C.

• Daylight: Sunrise 06:55, sunset 17:06; 10 h 10 min, 3 min less than yesterday

• Subway: Line 1 Yonge-University: no service Lawrence West to St Andrew, from 23:59.

• Civic: New council term begins in 12 days (Sunday, November 15)

• TSX: 35,801.09 at the close ▲ 0.51% (The Canadian Press)

• Dollar: 71.54 US cents ▼ 0.13%

• 5-year bond: 3.51% (it steers fixed mortgage rates) ▼ 0.07 (as of Oct 30)

• Gas: 174.5 cents a litre for regular, down 2.2 on the week (as of Oct 26)

Small charts show the last seven readings: trading days for the TSX, the dollar and the bond; weeks for gas.

The Toronto Stock Exchange, 1861. On October 25, 1861, 24 brokers met at the Masonic Hall and founded the Toronto Stock Exchange. It began with 13 listings, mostly bonds and bank shares. Bank failures stopped trading in 1869, and eight of the founders started it again in 1870. It moved to Bay Street in 1913, brought in computer-assisted trading in 1977 and closed its trading floor on April 23, 1997.

Sources: Wikipedia: Toronto Stock Exchange

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, in Essays (1841). American essayist and lecturer (1803-1882), who lectured in Toronto and Montreal.

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