The cost of a niche space for two aboveground urns in the columbarium would increase to $7,700 or $6,100 for an in-ground plot for an urn
Even in death Vancouverites can’t escape rising costs.
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The cost of a niche space for two aboveground urns in the columbarium would increase to $7,700, under the new price structure, or $6,100 for an in-ground plot for an urn.
No increases are proposed for casket spaces, which the report notes are already “at or near market rates.” The proposed cost for two casket spaces for 2025 is $36,200.
More than 80 per cent of people interred at Mountain View today are cremated, an unusually high rate among Canadian cities. The city-owned memorial ground is adding 6,200 additional spaces to accommodate future cremations. Those should become available next year.
The report noted its staff costs and the price of granite grew significantly faster than inflation.
Staff proposed increasing granite fees by 27 per cent “to cover the increased purchase cost of the material,” according to the report.
Granite is used as the foundation for upright monuments, according to Glen Hodges, Mountain View Cemetery’s manager, who said the cemetery installed 36 granite foundations so far this year.
“Granite is one of the hardest and long-lasting substances, but alternatives could potentially include concrete,” Hodges wrote in an email.
“In general, anything that we import has generally gone up (in price), and that’s because of ocean freight, mostly,” they told Postmedia. “It can range from anywhere from zero to quite a bit.”
City staff also proposed increasing the fees for facility attendants by 22 per cent. Facility attendant positions are provided by an outside contractor and wages hadn’t been adjusted “over a period of time and required a more significant increase than other areas,” staff wrote.
Facility attendants work during ceremonies and events at the cemetery, overseeing setup, service and cleanup, Hodges said in an email.
Fees for the cemetery have historically been set to cover operational costs, as well as the required contributions to the Care Fund, which was established to pay for grounds maintenance, and loan repayments related to capital investment.
The proposed fees are expected to increase revenue at the cemetery by $220,000, enough to cover the increased cost of operations next year.
“Cemetery revenues have exceeded budget targets every year since 2014, with the exception of 2020,” according to the report.
Extra revenues are reinvested in the cemetery and used to repay the loan used for redeveloping and reopening the cemetery in 2008.
There are more than 150,000 sets of human remains at Mountain View. The first burial was in 1887 and the grounds — which cover an area of more than 40 city blocks — have been largely been full for decades.
The cemetery sold no spaces between 1996 and 2008 because it was full, before a new columbarium was constructed in 2009.
Many municipalities in the Lower Mainland provide cemeteries, including North Vancouver, West Vancouver, New Westminster and Surrey. There are also two privately operated cemeteries in Burnaby.
With a file from Gord McIntyre