Local legion lets go all employees, closes doors amid financial trouble
Provincial command has removed the branch officers and executive members
The Royal Canadian Legion’s Chapelhow branch in northeast Calgary has dismissed all of its employees and will close the doors until Sept. 1, but won’t answer questions about what prompted the decisions.
All employees, including some who had been with the branch for more than 20 years, were laid off en masse less than two weeks ago.
The Chapelhow branch, on 38th Ave N.E., east of Edmonton Trail, will remain open until the end of day Saturday, after which the doors will close for three weeks.
“Command has stepped in and the staff are laid off,” said Gordon Purcell, who was appointed as a trustee last week after all the previous trustees were removed by the Alberta-Northwest Territories command.
Purcell, who was the second vice-president of the Chapelhow branch prior to being made a trustee, declined to answer questions about what prompted the closure because: “We’ve signed a confidentiality agreement.”
He said all laid-off employees will need to reapply for their jobs.
A notice on the door of the legion, known as Branch 284, states Purcell, as well as fellow trustees George Rannelli and Doug Michetti, will review and reorganize the branch’s operations during the closure. “Since the branch has been struggling financially that ( sic) provincial command has removed the branch officers and executive members,” reads the notice.
Prior to the employees being let go, command removed the entire volunteer executive.
Purcell, as well as the president and the first vice-president, were then made trustees.
Bill Reynolds, a former member of the executive, said he was told staff were terminated amid allegations of financial mismanagement, although he’s seen no evidence of wrongdoing.
“I happened to get lucky enough to get a hold of some bank statements today from the legion, and I find every one of our accounts has money in them. Now, if we’re broke, I don’t know how that could be. Therefore, I kind of think they might be running on a witch hunt,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds objected to the lack of information command has provided employees, and the recently disbanded executive.
“About two weeks ago Sunday, we were at one of our executive meetings and a gentleman came in, all decorated up in fancy ribbons, and he said he represented northwest command and that he was there for the non-pleasant duty of telling us that they were going to be closing down the 284 legion, and the old executive has now been (disbanded), we’re no longer needed, we’ve been fired,” said Reynolds.
The legion’s Alberta-Northwest Territories command did not reply to multiple requests for comment.