Some legions struggling to pay the bills as membership declines

For generations, the legion has been a community gathering spot for veterans and their families, but some legion branches now say declining membership and mounting bills are creating mounting stress.

Ottawa’s Centretown Legion, known as Montgomery Branch 351, offers its members a range of services from Euchre tournaments to tax clinics, and education on fraud and identity theft. But a broken elevator and an estimated $100,000 repair bill mean some of its most loyal members can no longer enter the mulit-storey facility.

The branch’s president, Dennis Sirman, says many of the branch’s members are veterans in their 80s and 90s. 

Sirman says the branch has basically emptied its savings to pay for the repairs, but it is still short. That’s why a crowdfunding campaign has been launched.

Without a functioning elevator, many private groups that bring in revenue are hesitant to book space. The branch says it can cover its bills and still has around 300 members, but that there is stress every month when the bills are due.

“We had some momentum going and were actually several months in the black and then the elevator failed,” he said.

The Montgomery branch is not alone in its financial stress or in its efforts to reach further into the community to help raise money.

Branch 5 Legion, in Donkin, N.S., has served veterans since 1927 but its building is aging and maintenance costs are getting harder to cover with declining membership.

“The veterans fought for us. We should keep this legion going because they fought for us, so we could be here and safe,” said Tanya Clements, the second vice president for Branch 5 Legion.

Last year, a local radio station in Edmonton raised enough money through three meat draws to help Edmonton’s Kingsway Legion, Branch 175, get back into the black. But facing utility bills of roughly $16,000 a month, the branch’s president says pressure is mounting again.

“We have a problem and that’s going to become our next big bugbear, making sure that we have sufficient funds to pay those big bills,” said the branch’s president, Robert (Mac) Torrie. “It’s very stressful. It keeps the manager asking where are we going to find the money.”

Torrie says the branch is trying to get creative in coming up with new fundraising and revenue streams. But membership and the pool of volunteers, he says, are not going in the right direction.

“We have a lot of card carrying members and if it wasn’t for associate and affiliate members a lot of legions would be closed”, he said. “Unfortunately we just don’t have the veterans … those born in the 90s and on, they just don’t seem to be interested in joining the legion. They saw that as their grandfather’s drinking place, or grandmother’s.”

Each legion branch is independently operated from the Royal Canadian Legion and run mainly by dedicated volunteers.

“The legion’s main purpose is to keep remembrance going and to assist any veteran in time of need, either financially or morally,” said Torrie, whose legion branch does have some paid employees.

The Royal Canadian Legion says that while individual branches may face hardship due to rising operational costs and changing community demographics, a spokesperson says the legion as a whole has actually seen a five per cent growth in membership year-over-year over the past two years.

“The legion is seeing membership growth at every provincial command across the country,” said Nujma Bond, communications manager for the Royal Canadian Legion. “Branches are run primarily by volunteers and can face localized challenges, but their unique situations do not translate into a current problem across the country.”

Over the past 12 months, the Royal Canadian Legion says only four of its more than 1,350 branches have closed and some, including one at UBC, have opened.

Sirman’s old Ottawa legion branch closed in June 2020 and he hopes branches remain a community staple for decades to come. The family that is created at a legion, he says, needs to be preserved and cherished.

“Every time you lose a legion, you lose that centre point, or community point,” he said. “It’s frustrating because sometimes you throw your hands up in disgust and say, ‘What can I do?’ Then you have a successful karaoke night or a celebration of life for a long-time member and it restores the energy that you have to keep moving forward.”

With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Kyle Moore