Spirit of generosity leaves lasting legacy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2023 (1018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“You’ve heard it said that giving is fun … well, it does feel good. It’s actually very easy. Look at everything that happens in Brandon, it’s all volunteer … and no matter what you give, whether it’s time, energy or money, I haven’t met very many people who haven’t had fun doing it.”

— Diane Peters, January 2009

“I didn’t want to wait (and) donate on my deathbed. Thirty years snuck up on us, (but) we’re not done yet. This is where we are going to start.”

— Gord Peters, January 2009

Nearly 15 years ago, Gord and Diane Peters made an enormous donation to the Brandon and Area Community Foundation of $1 million worth of personal shares in their employee-owned company Cando Contracting Ltd. Gord is the president and founder of Cando Rail Services.

It was, at the time, the single largest gift the BACF has seen from a single donor and moreover, the couple essentially offered the foundation their own personal stocks in the company. A Brandon Sun story that month noted that the couple didn’t hesitate to make it, given the reach that the foundation extends to communities in Westman.

“They have an interest in southwestern Manitoba and we’re both from rural communities,” Gord told the Sun. “They’ve walked the talk over many years and delivered the goods to a lot of communities on a broad-based interest.”

It wasn’t the first time that they had made efforts to help their home community — the couple had previously made donations to the Sun Fund for Kids and the Sun Christmas Cheer Registry, and spent time on the Andrews Field steering committee’s Hit A Home Run campaign, just to name a few of their community-minded endeavours. There may well have been others of which we’re not aware.

But that particular year seemed to mark a turning point for the couple, in which they become even more engaged within the community — at least according to the pages of the Sun.

In the years since then, the couple has only broadened their support of the community as they have offered their time, their energy and yes their money to several worthy and important causes and projects along the way.

In 2011, Gord and Diane took it upon themselves to co-chair a $2-million private-sector fundraising campaign to both preserve and restore Brandon’s historic Dome Building.

“This building, and the job the Provincial Ex has done over many, many years in profiling agriculture in our community, and the value of it — we think that’s very important,” Gord Peters said in March of that year. “That’s why we’re proud to step up and co-chair this fundraising effort.”

Among their other, more recent contributions, the couple offered yet another $1-million donation of personal company shares to the Brandon Area Community Foundation in 2018, a pledge of $500,000 to the Prairie Innovation Centre in 2022, and they continued to give earlier this year, with a pledge to offer a dollar-for-dollar matching donation up to $50,000 to a community park fundraiser in Forrest.

But then there was Tuesday afternoon, and an announcement of a $10-million donation to the Assiniboine Community College School of Business. Not only was this the largest single contribution to the college in its history, but among the top donations that have been made in the country.

The Peters have been lifelong residents of western Manitoba and have been among this city’s — and this region’s — biggest supporters. And if that were not enough, it’s also worth noting the strong business acumen that Gord has demonstrated in building a successful and growing business since taking it over in 1978 — one that now has locations across North America and employs more than 1,000 people. It’s not surprising that in 2016, Gord Peters was inducted in the Manitoba Business Hall of Fame.

On the Hall of Fame’s website, Peters noted that he and Diane “give out 1.0 to 1.5 per cent” of their pre-tax profits every year.

“A big part of a successful business is giving back to the community,” Gord is quoted as saying. “That means coaching the baseball and hockey teams and all the other things that make a career worthwhile.”

ACC’s decision to name its new business school the Peters School of Business is a good and right choice, one that honours the best of our local business owners, and acknowledges their consistent spirit of philanthropy, generosity and volunteer efforts toward the betterment of our community.

Let us all hope that the new business school helps instil that community spirit in a new generation of entrepreneurs.