A LONG AND PROUD HISTORY OF SERVICE

Captain Edward Walter, a retired officer of the Crimean War, founded The Corps of Commissionaires in England in 1859 to help veterans make the difficult transition back to civilian life and employment.

In an effort to find jobs for these veterans, he convinced friends and acquaintances that the exemplary discipline, loyalty and dedication to service that veterans possessed could be put to excellent use in business. He succeeded in finding jobs for seven veterans and thereby launched the Corps of Commissionaires.

Now known as Commissionaires, the private, not-for-profit organization was founded in Canada in 1925 following the First World War when there was no social safety net for soldiers who, upon completion of their service, found themselves without employment. Commissionaires was created, first in Montreal, then in Toronto and Vancouver, to look after these men and women and provide them with transitional or permanent jobs, primarily in the security field. In the early years, these jobs most frequently involved guarding government institutions. From 1925 to 1948 Commissionaires expanded all across Canada. Today there are a total of 17 independently operated Commissionaires offices representing every Canadian province and territory.

Today, Commissionaires employs over 19,000 men and women across Canada of all ages and from many walks of life - including but not limited to former Canadian Forces and RCMP personnel. 

Commissionaires Ottawa is the largest and fastest-growing Commissionaires division in Canada. The company has been publicly acknowledged as a market leader and was recently listed as the largest private employer in Ottawa. The company’s massive service territory stretches across Northern Ontario, through the Ottawa Valley, throughout the Nation's Capital, and across the inter-provincial border into Gatineau and North West Québec. The company currently employs more than 3,800 security professionals who provide a comprehensive range of identification, enforcement, training and security solutions at about 500 private and public sector sites.