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  Time Line of TB in Canada

 1896 - William Gage founds the first sanatorium in Canada

In the final decade of the 19th Century, Canadians suffering from tuberculosis found no institutional treatment for their disease here in Canada. The extremely rich could ship off to Europe or to Saranac Lake, New York, for treatment in tuberculosis sanatoria, but no such centres were available in Canada.

Muskoka Cottage Sanatorium was the first TB sanatorium in Canada, at Gravenhurst, Ontario.



 Years
 1867
 1882
 1896
 1900
 1905
 1919
 1921
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 1925
 1929
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Sir William Gage offered the Toronto city council $25,000 to start building a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1894, but no action was taken. The next year, Gage called a meeting a the National Club in Toronto to discuss his idea, and a committee agreed to "take steps leading towards the organization of a Sanatorium for Consumptives". While travelling across Canada to find a suitable site for the sanatorium, and visiting institutions in Europe and the United States, Gage realized that it was time to establish a more definite administrative organization. On April 23, 1896, by a special Act of the Dominion Parliament, the National Sanatorium Association was born.

Kamloops, BC, was nearly chosen as the site for the first sanatorium:

"Sir William van Horne, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway offered free transportation for tuberculosis patients from any part of Canada if the sanatorium were built in Kamloops." – Gale, 1979

However, the town of Gravenhurst, Ontario, offered $10,000 towards the building if a sanatorium were built in or near the town. Thus, a site was found on the shore of Lake Muskoka near Gravenhurst, and the Muskoka Cottage Hospital, was built with the additional funds coming from Mr. Gage ($25,000), Mr. Hart A. Massey ($25,000), and Mr. William Christie ($10,000). Canada’s first sanatorium was officially opened in 1897.