Regina Legion closing down bar, museum

With a shift in the type of supports veterans want, the Royal Canadian Legion in Regina is deciding to shut down its bar and museum.

“The latest thing with COVID, our sales were way down so we thought it was an opportune time to close (the bar) for the simple reason (that it’s) not just economic but the image of the Legion is a bar and today’s veterans are not interested in that,” said Ron Hitchcock, the president and CEO of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 001 in Regina.

“It’s got nothing to do with their mental health. We want to change our image so you think of the Legion not as a building, but as a purpose. The purpose of the Legion is to help veterans and their families, including current serving members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Armed Forces.

“(Modern veterans) are not interested in the Legion for social aspects. They’re more concerned with their mental health and if they can’t get it there, then they need to go elsewhere. That’s why we have programs that are external to our building.”

Hitchcock said many veterans suffer from an occupational stress injury – also called post-traumatic stress disorder – and it’s treated in a number of ways, including therapy and medication.

Hitchcock said the Legion provides programming like therapy dogs and wellness programs that include physical therapy, counselling and gym memberships.

“There isn’t one cut thing that will fix all of them. Everything doesn’t work for everyone. That’s the thing we’re always fighting with Veterans Affairs with,” Hitchcock said.

The bar, which is located in the basement of the Legion building, might be turned into office space and leased out so the Legion can profit off the space.

As for the museum, which makes up about half of the entire square footage of the building, it will also be closed since it is not economically feasible to keep it open.

“We pay rent for that floor space and we get no return so we have to do something else with it. We have to find a home for the artifacts that we have,” Hitchcock said.

With memorabilia and a variety of murals inside the museum, Hitchcock said the Legion planned on possibly trying to sell things in order to start raising money towards a healing centre to help everyone dealing with an occupational stress injury, not just veterans.

The Legion’s recent poppy campaign was short $45,000 from where it was last year, but Hitchock says there are still donations coming in online.