Benjamin Franklin once said there are only two things for certain in this world: death and taxes. In the case of Whistler's cemetery, you get a bit of both.
On June 20, the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) mayor and council gave first three readings to a new Cemetery Management Bylaw that will raise the cemetery's fees and add new end-of-life interment options.
According to manager of legislative services Pauline Lysaght, the bylaw modifications will bring cemetery fees into parity with comparative municipalities and is needed due to the significant time that has passed since the RMOW has updated the bylaw.
“In 2006, we adopted the current bylaw and fee schedule for the cemetery, and that has stayed in place since that day,” Lysaght said in a presentation to council. “In 2022 ... staff identified that there was a need for additional plots in the cemetery and that we were well overdue for an updated bylaw and fee schedule. So we began this work.”
The planned fee changes are substantial, with all interment options nearly doubling in price. Under the new bylaw, a single, adult burial lot will increase in price from $1,100 to $2,000 for residents and from $2,201.69 to $4,000 for non-residents.
Infant burial lots will rise in cost from $642.16 to $1,000 for residents ($1,500 non-residents); in-ground cremation lots from $458.69 to $1,500 ($2,250 for non-residents); columbarium niche lots from $917.37 to $1,500 ($2,250 for non-residents); and the scattering garden rising from $119.26 to $350 ($500 for non-residents).
The fees will continue to rise over the coming years as the RMOW plans to add a three-per-cent per annum inflation rate increase to the interment costs and add a new administrative fee. The planned fee increases in the bylaw will stay in place until 2025, after which the annual three-per-cent increase will kick in.
Lysaght said that the automatic fee increase would help the RMOW keep up with inflation and ensure staff don’t have to return to council to update the annual fee. The rising prices aim to build up the care fund reserve, the primary revenue source to upkeep the cemetery in perpetuity.
“Currently, we have $37,000 sitting in our care fund. So it is an area where we have identified we are not in a position right now to be able to maintain the cemetery with the amount of money that we have collected. So one of the key changes to the schedule is to add a more robust care fund portion to the fees,” Lysaght said.
The new bylaw adds two new interment options, including a double cremation burial plot and a child category for all interment options, which will reduce the cost of interment of a child, which the RMOW defines as children between the ages of two and 12.
Other changes in the new bylaw include the addition of a customized inscription fee, an updated definition of residents to include people who left Whistler for medical or palliative reasons, a limit on how many plots people can purchase, a procedure for disinterment, and an offence section and bylaw enforcement tool.
How residents want to go
From April 14 to 28, the RMOW surveyed the community regarding the new Cemetery Master Plan. Approximately 100 individuals participated in the survey, and the results indicate that residents are interested in having more choices for the disposition of their remains.
Permanent residents made up the majority of respondents at 98 per cent, with about 60 per cent of the respondents 55 years or older. The survey found that of the existing interment options, in-ground cremation plots were the most desired at 15 per cent; scattered gardens at 12 per cent; columbarium niches at 11 per cent; and traditional and ground burial at eight per cent.
Natural green burial took the top spot of the interment options not currently offered in the cemetery, with 33 per cent of people wanting that alternative, followed by memorial walls at 25 per cent and family columbarium at 15 and multiple interment lots also at 15 per cent. The creation of an infant and child area in the cemetery came last at six per cent.
The RMOW will incorporate the feedback into the draft master planning process, with staff aiming to present the final draft to council in September.
Learn more about the Whistler Cemetery at whistler.ca/services/cemetery-and-tributes.
