I will call Legion branches the cornerstones of their communities, particularly in the smaller outside rural communities, if you want to use those terms.
Legion branches were also the initial PTSD treatment centres, where individuals went and looked after each other. They took their buddies. My grandfather took his regimental adjutant into the Legion. The regimental adjutant drank two 40-pounders a day to get rid of his PTSD. It wasn't fun, but that's how they protected themselves. They took their comrades into the branches. They looked after them until they were ready to come back out into the real world, and that's what they did. They looked after each other.
Branches across the country are all different. There's no cookie cutter that says you have the same thing all across the country, nor should there be, because every community is different.
With branches in rural communities, we're having a real issue. A lot of them are closing down because, frankly, a lot of people are moving out of the rural communities into the urban centres. Where are the population bases? This is a natural phenomenon as we move on.
We see it in Saskatchewan. We see it in all areas of the Prairies. This is happening even in larger centres. You say you have 14 branches within your area; we're suggesting to these branches that maybe they should all come together and amalgamate a few of them and make them bigger and stronger.
Most of those branches are in 40- to 50- or maybe 60-year-old buildings. The infrastructure is a killer. It's costing them a lot of money to keep old buildings running. Why not come together, amalgamate a few of the branches, put all the members together, so you have.... In their heyday, the branches used to have 1,000-plus members in a branch. You might have 200 people now who are trying to support what 1,000 used to do. It's a very difficult thing to do.
What we're recommending is that they start thinking about this idea of amalgamation, coming together with bigger branches to provide more service to the community.