John Pankiw, president of the Cantex Group of Companies, has become the latest major donor to support the new Patient Care Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital.

Pankiw has donated $100,000 to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation’s campaign to supply the medical equipment for the PRH expansion.

Pankiw founded Cantex in 1971, four years after he and his family moved to Penticton from Lillooet as the new District Engineer for the Highways Department. Cantex now mainly concentrates on heavy construction and mining services, but is also involved in aggregates, paving and real estate.

Although he retired in 2006, Pankiw remains as company president. He admits it has been very gratifying to see the company grow over the years. “It has been a fun trip,” he said. “Not without its challenges, but at the same time there’s a lot of satisfaction.”

This is not the first time Pankiw has made a major donation for the community, having previously donated $100,000 to Okanagan College’s fundraising campaign which spawned the Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence at the Penticton campus.  “I consider both the hospital and the college to be very significant entities in the community,” he said. “So I thought they were very worthwhile causes to contribute to.”

Construction of the new tower at PRH is set to get underway in the spring of 2016.

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