About Ontario's fees
Every province sets the rate for cemetery’s perpetuity funds. Measured as a percentage, it’s the amount of each plot sale that must be put aside in a fund for long term care. (Eg, in Ontario if a plot costs $1,000, at the 40% rate, $400 is put into the fund). The higher the rate, the more the price is inflated for families. For those choosing to be buried in a natural burial ground, Ontario’s high rate is unfair and unnecessary, because natural sites are a fraction of a cost to maintain.
Here are the national rates:
For provinces and territories where the municipality is responsible for abandoned cemeteries: BC 25%, MN* 30%, SK 15%, NS, 15%, NU 0%, NT 0%, YT 33%, ON 40%. For provinces where the municipalities are not responsible: NB 0%, QC 0%, NL 0%, PE 0%, AB 0%/15%** .
Stand-alone natural burial grounds are opened by people who want to offer a gentler end-of-life option, people who value serving both families and nature. With rare exception, they aren’t opened by operators already in the business of running conventional cemeteries. Yet in Ontario, a new cemetery operator must have $165,000 in their perpetuity fund before they are granted a cemetery licence. In every other province that fee is $0 (except Saskatchewan at $10,000/hectare). This fee is a barrier to the creation of the expansive stand-alone natural burial grounds that are nestled in nature, independent of the conventional cemeteries.
*no marker
**0% for religious, municipal cemetery, 15% for private cemetery.