Dismay at Ontario’s high fees
As we gathered stories about wonderful natural burial grounds around the world, we told these cemetery operators about the Ontario government’s high cemetery fees and wow, they are as aghast as we are!
- That is a very high price to pay for burial fees, and seems to be prohibitive for any cemetery. Good luck with changing those laws. I can’t believe you have to do that! I can’t imagine what the burial costs in your cemetery must be!
- It’s mindblowing how many obstacles you have.
- 40% – That’s a little bit cheeky.
- Those fees are outrageous.
- That is extremely inappropriate and unnecessary. Having worked in the funeral industry, there’s a stranglehold placed on anything that’s going to take power or money from the funeral industry. They are powerful; they lobby very, very well for themselves. Everything you’re talking about [the $165, 000 and 40%] is an attempt to prevent these [natural burial grounds] from happening.
- That’s a little steep isn’t it?
- Oh my goodness.
- I was shocked when I heard how prohibitively expensive it is to open a perpetuity fund in Ontario and equally as shocked to find out the enormous percentage of every lot sale that must be contributed to the fund. I understand this is to try to ensure that the cemetery will be taken care of in perpetuity (which is extremely important) but I’m not sure how it’s even feasible for a cemetery to survive after having to make such a large contribution, unless they are completely gouging the customers on the price of a cemetery lot.
- He just let out a big long whistle
- That is a ridiculously steep hurdle.
- *&!#@* That seems highly prohibitive to the running of an effective business model of any kind whether it’s a non-profit or a for-profit. Even at the ten percent for our conservation burial ground there’s the question of Why? It doesn’t cost that much to maintain a forest. Once the grave mounds have settled, there’s a little bit of grave-tending in the first couple of years and then they’re good, everything’s good. You don’t have to mow any lawns! It feels to me that that is a huge blind spot in the policy and legislation. And that there’s not an understanding of the distinction between what a conventional cemetery maintenance process is and what a conservation cemetery maintenance process is. And that there’s probably some giant taboo in not wanting to deal with new cemetery development.
- That’s extreme. For a natural burial cemetery, I feel $25,000 is extreme. [That] and 10% is a massive amount of our revenue that we cannot touch.