Municipalities have a tough enough time dealing with the living residents. Now, Tiny Township wants the province to help step in for those residents who have since passed.
During the communications and consent items of the recent committee of the whole meeting, Tiny council members looked at a recent resolution passed by the Township of Clearview asking the province for help regarding cemetery administration and management support.
The request to the province, through Todd McCarthy of the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, and interim CEO/registrar for the Bereavement Authority of Ontario Jim Cassimatis, was for assistance should ownership of a cemetery in their municipality be transferred, or in a worse case, abandoned.
Tiny CAO Robert Lamb provided an explanation to council on what that could entail from a municipal lens.
“The really problematic potential ones for municipalities are active cemeteries, not inactive ones,” said Lamb.
“If the municipality ends up having to take ownership of (an inactive cemetery), it’s simply a (matter of) maintenance and trying to maintain… trying to make sure the grass is cut and do basic repairs. But if we have a default on an active cemetery, we become the cemetery board. We make all the arrangements with funeral homes, and (handle) headstones, maintenance and the rest of it.
“That becomes purely an administrative function,” added Lamb, with confirmation from municipal clerk Sue Walton. “Most of the time it becomes administrative, unfortunately through the clerk’s office, to look after those contractual arrangements. And then it falls to public works, actually, to do the maintenance to it.”
Walton added that she had joined public works director Tim Leitch in meeting with the Bereavement Authority of Ontario last year to have a thorough conversation of the level of involvement required of a municipality tasked with handling the affair.
“There’s some legislation involved as well,” said Walton. “There are bylaws that have to be created; so we do have a good handle on what is required, but it is quite in-depth.
“Council passing this resolution is a good step to hopefully helping us, and other municipalities, to deal with this,” Walton noted.
Members of council were in favour of supporting the Clearview resolution and adding their voice of support to the chorus.
“I know we may come into that situation,” said Coun. Kelly Helowka as he pointed out the St. Andrews Presbyterian Church at 8144 CR-93 in Wyebridge as one example of a two-plot cemetery which had “basically been abandoned for at least a year and a half.”
Leitch confirmed that public works did “minor lawn maintenance” care of the property, with the second location being Cemetery Lane at Conc. 13 E.
Deputy Mayor Sean Miskimins fully supported the resolution. “I think this is something that’s facing a lot of municipalities; and for them to have to take over and pass that along to the taxpayer, I think, is unreasonable. I think the province should have to take on some of this burden.”
Joining council was Mayor Dave Evans, who read aloud the resolution including the four assists requests by Clearview Township: to amend the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 and have the province recognized as an abandoned cemetery’s owner and operator; to provide annual funding; to provide free training for municipal cemetery administration; and to look into affordable cemetery software that can be universally implemented by municipalities.
“Frankly, we know we’re going to have to do the work, but we’d like to be able to have our provincial partners help us out as well,” stated Evans.
He also shared an anecdote where he had learned of a 150-year-old Cape Breton cemetery in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, which had recently experienced water erosion on graves causing them to be washed away by the changing course of a local river. With no provincial assistance, responsibility was being shifted around.
Said Evans of Tiny Township’s situation: “I’m happy that we’re able to act in a proactive manner and find a successful resolution to this.”
Council supported the drawn motion with intent to pass notification to Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop as well with Clearview Township included.
The Clearview Township correspondence on cemetery transfer/abandonment administration and management support can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the Township’s YouTube channel.
