An act of fraud has nearly drowned the Prince George Legion in debt.
The veterans' group is not officially dead, but on Wednesday they told The Citizen that the life support system is being wheeled in and last rites
being prepared.
"We've only got enough capital to run for another couple of months," said John Scott, after two years of the Legion's local members trying in vain to secure a financial future. "If nothing changes [a massive donation or the sale of their building] we will have to turn it over to Command [the national supervisory body] in about April and we will lose our charter. Prince George will lose the Legion. Command will hold it and likely put an executor in place. They may be able to save the Legion, but more likely they will have to sell it."
His pessimism is based in the lack of interest they have received in pleas to City Hall for buying the building and leasing it back at a reasonable rate, or a private
sector partner coming to their
rescue.
"Command is more than aware of where we're at, and the black clouds are forming," he said.
"I know there are vultures waiting for us to go bankrupt, but that won't happen. Command will take over before that. There won't be a sweet deal on the property."
He also stressed that there won't be anyone left with unpaid bills. For years, they have been pouring all their means into doing that, and they won't stop now, said Scott.
"We are hoping to be able to pay everything up ourselves, and this is where Command will come in and make sure nobody is left holding the bag. That's not the way the Legion operates," he said.
The amount they owe on the building - about $400,000 he estimated - was incurred to cover a host of bills they suddenly discovered were outstanding.
A former staff person, he said, without disclosing an identity, torpedoed the local Legion's financial books and plundered the accounts. Charges were never attempted, so thorough was the burial of the records, said Scott.
The group was on a
financially sustainable path until that happened.
"We discovered it and got some of it back, but that really set us back. That killed us," he said. "The [perpetrator] just siphoned us, and the paperwork was destroyed or gone. The [perpetrator] hadn't paid a bill in two years. We had to take out a mortgage twice in that time period afterwards to catch up with the bills."
The loss of the Legion's local charter isn't just a symbolic closure of an iconic building, he said. It means, Scott explained, the area's veterans will cease to have a menu of programs and services while the anticipated upsurge in veterans' needs following the Afghanistan war will go unserviced. Scott said there were also ongoing scholarships, the future of the Connaught Youth Centre, annual donations to Hospice House, and other community initiatives that would suddenly halt.
"We actually had increasing membership, for the past couple of years; our association is healthy," he said.
There were about 700 signed up, local members.
"But the big problem is, the only money we can keep for operating funds is what we make at the bar and kitchen, and a small amount from gaming grants. The money raised other ways, by law, has to go right back to the veterans."
Scott invited any serious offers in what seem to be the final days of Royal Canadian Legion Branch
No. 43.
"There is still a ghost of a chance," he said.
