VÉZINA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-14 published
Philanthropist extraordinaire
Francophone students were among the many beneficiaries of her
generosity
By Randy RAY
Special to The Globe and Mail Monday, July 14, 2003
- Page R7
Ottawa -- Before he died in February, 1993, millionaire Baxter
RICARD urged his wife
Alma to spend the couple's fortune wisely.
''Put it back into the community, " he told her. ''Spend it well.''
Mrs. RICARD did not let her husband down.
In the 10 years following the death of Mr.
RICARD, who owned
a chain of radio, television and cable stations in Northern Ontario,
she earned a reputation as one of Canada's most generous philanthropists,
highlighted by a $23-million donation in 1998 to a fellowship
fund that promotes higher education to francophone students across
the country.
Mrs. RICARD, who was born in Montreal on October 4, 1906, died
at her home in Sudbury on June 2. She was 96.
To date, the Ottawa-based Fondation Baxter and Alma Ricard has
given 81 students a total of $4.2-million to further their postsecondary
education. Other beneficiaries of the couple's generosity have
included colleges, hospitals, church groups and universities
in Sudbury and Toronto.
''Mrs. RICARD is one of the biggest philanthropists in Canada,"
said Alain
LANDRY, executive director of the foundation, which
was formed in 1988 to distribute the
RICARDs' money to various
charitable causes. The fellowship fund was set up a decade later.
Mrs. RICARD, formerly Alma
VÉZINA, moved to Sudbury in 1931 after
responding to a job advertisement from a hardware store run by
Félix RICARD, father of Baxter
RICARD.
She was trained as a secretary
at the time.
''She took the train and arrived at 4 a.m.," says Mr.
LANDRY.
''In those days, a young lady was not to be seen with a man going
to a hotel, so she and Baxter went to a church where they sat
until daylight, and she fell in love with him.'' She worked as
an administrative assistant to the elder Mr.
RICARD and eventually
married Baxter, who in later years inherited his father's hardware
store and ran it with the help of his wife.
In 1947, the
RICARDs left the hardware business and began building
a broadcasting empire in Northern Ontario, starting with two
radio stations in Sudbury and growing to include numerous radio
and television stations. Radio stations established by the couple
included CHNO, the first bilingual radio station in Ontario,
CFBR and
CJMX-FM.
In 1974, when cable television started to expand, Baxter
RICARD
and some colleagues obtained a licence for cable distribution
in northern and eastern Ontario and created Northern Cable Holdings
Ltd., which served the greater Sudbury area and areas as far
north as Hearst, Ontario In 1980, the company acquired two television
stations to serve the same areas and gave it the name Mid-Canada
Television. Mr.
RICARD also had an interest in a Toronto cable-television
company.
Alma RICARD was her husband's ''right-hand person" and took an
active part in the broadcasting business and all other ventures
he was involved in, including the city-planning committee in
Sudbury, the board of directors at Sudbury General Hospital and
the Central Canada Broadcasting Association. ''They were inseparable
in all those activities," says Mr.
LANDRY.
Like Felix
RICARD,
Baxter and Alma
RICARD were strong believers
in a Canadian mosaic that included French-speaking citizens.
In an era when Ontario's francophones were not permitted to study
in French, Felix
RICARD didn't have the financial means to promote
the francophone culture and lobby for French schooling, so he
became an outspoken trustee on the local school board.
As a trustee, he was ''a defender of the rights of francophones
in matters of French education... [who] made significant gains
for the francophone population of that region. A school in Sudbury
bears his name," says a document obtained from Fondation Baxter
& Alma Ricard. Baxter and Alma
RICARD, on the other hand, made
millions in the broadcasting industry and had the financial wherewithal
to further the francophone cause, including the struggle for
a quality education for French-speaking Ontarians.
''Baxter had no family and the couple had no children so they
had to think of who would inherit their money," says André
LACROIX
of Sudbury, a lawyer, business associate and long-time friend
of the RICARDs. ''Fairly early in the game they realized most
of their assets should be used for charitable purposes. That's
when they developed the idea of a charitable foundation.'' In
its initial years after Mr.
RICARD's death, the foundation donated
$600,000 to Cambrian College and $1-million each to Sudbury General
Hospital, the University of Sudbury, and Laurentian University,
all in Sudbury, and a total of more than $4-million to the University
of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
In the early 1990s, the
RICARDs and their associates sold their
radio and television stations to Baton Broadcasting and their
cable distribution company to
CFCF
Ltd. In 1998, on the strength
of money reaped from the sale, the fellowship fund was started
and aimed specifically at francophone Canadians living permanently
in a minority situation outside of Quebec who need money to advance
their studies beyond a bachelor's degree.
Based on Baxter
RICARD's idea, the fund was created jointly by
businessman Paul
DESMARAIS
Sr., now chairman of the executive
committee of management and holding company Power Corporation
of Canada. Mr.
DESMARAIS and Mr.
LACROIX, plus Paul
DESMARAIS
Jr., are members of the board of directors of Fondation Baxter
& Alma Ricard.
It was launched with the original $23-million donation from Ms.
RICARD and despite many disbursements, today sits at $25-million
thanks to interest earned on the principal, says Mr.
LANDRY.
Until her death, Mrs.
RICARD was president of the board and until
three months ago, continued to sign cheques, says Mr.
LACROIX,
who remembers Mrs.
RICARD as a ''generous and kind person who
helped people with problems.''
''Baxter's father would be proud of what Alma has accomplished
since Baxter died. It is well along the way to what he had promoted
for many years," says Mr.
LACROIX.
In addition to donations in the millions of dollars over the
years, Mrs.
RICARD once helped out a person who couldn't handle
her mortgage payments and was about to lose her home; she also
donated to a religious group that raised money for the poor.
Mr. LACROIX remembers Mrs.
RICARD as a woman who loved to have
fun.
''From age 70 onward she didn't mind going on until 1 a.m. or
2 a.m. She enjoyed going out at night, she loved to dance," he
says. ''She was also quite religious, church attendance was sacred.''
Mrs. RICARD also loved to collect hats: ''She had hundreds of
hats and they were attention-getters," says Mr.
LACROIX, who
knew the RICARDs for more than 30 years.
Of all the recognition she received over the years, Mrs.
RICARD
cherished most the Officer of the Order of Canada bestowed on
her in 2000, says Mr.
LACROIX. Governor-General Adrienne
CLARKSON
travelled to Sudbury to present the honour to Mrs.
RICARD in
her sick bed, at her home, in September, 2002.
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