‘It’s been tough,’: Royal Canadian Legions take big financial hit amid COVID-19

At the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #6 in Redcliff, the facility has been feeling the financial pinch.

“It’s been tough. We obviously rely on our community for patronage to keep the doors open and their business, so having to need to close, it was hard,” said Melody Astika.

“Right now we have had to use some of our small business loan that the government provided just to pay utilities and taxes to keep the lights on,” Astika said.

Fundraising opportunities have dried up for the Legions due to cancellations, further impacting their bottom line.

“Redcliff Days is one of our biggest money makers of the year, and we weren’t able to do that. One of our other big money makers is we have a golf tournament every summer, and we also had to cancel that,” said Astika.

At the Robertson Memorial Branch #17 in Medicine Hat, they have also felt the financial challenge but consider themselves lucky, thanks to a strong fiscal year last year and some forward-thinking members 25 years ago.

“We at that time established a pub. Our pub has moved from downstairs to the upstairs of our building and this has been our saving grace. So up until the pandemic we have had to close our doors on March 12, we were doing really well financially mainly because we had our canteen open to our members and their guests but we also had the pub,” president Sheila Donner said.

Renovating and thinking of new ways to attract members is something some Legions across Canada have been trying to do in order to attract new membership and to keep the Legion alive. It’s also something the Redcliff Legion is currently doing, with renovations underway with the hopes of it leading to more event bookings, such as weddings.

” We’ve taken these 12 weeks that we have been closed and did some much needed updates to the building. Cleaned it, fresh coats of paint, we’ve completely renovated our dining room, through a grant that was given to us, so we are hoping that when we get the doors back open that we can get more members and more people in here to see what we offer,” said Astika.

Aside from hosting events and offering meals, Legions also provide critical support to the community’s veterans.

“My hearing was going bad and because of the legion, I got my hearing aides and that is all looked after for me, it’s things like that that the veterans depend on the Legion to get them going,” explained Gale.

Legions, according to Donner have also supplied rent assistance, mobility aids and travel money for veterans receiving medical care.

According to Astika, letters have been sent by the Royal Canadian Legion Command to the Federal Government demanding greater assistance to keep Legion doors open.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Veteran Affairs said,

“Our response to this pandemic is ongoing, and we will continue to explore ways to ensure that we’re providing Canadians and our community partners with the support they need,” the spokesperson told CHAT NEWS Today.

Until then, as members like Astika wipe down and stage what could be the future both she and Donner are doing what they can to keep alive a place meant to honor and support those who continue make the ultimate sacrifice.

“We must never forget that we still have a Canadian Armed Forces, and we must never forget what the veterans have done for many years in Canada so that we can live the life that we do live,” Donner said.

by Tiffany Goodwein

‘It’s been tough,’: Royal Canadian Legions take big financial hit amid COVID-19

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