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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.

zschwartz@postmedia.com