KENILWORTH – Wellington North is raising prices at the Mount Forest cemetery in an attempt to reach full cost recovery.
There will be some significant hikes to get it there, with the burial of a child rising from $300 to $1,000, scattering garden internment increasing from $200 to $600 and niche internment rising from $407 to $600.
A single grave will cost $3,181, a cremation plot $2,400, a niche for two urns $2,247, adult internment for $1,910 and cremated remains in a standard plot for $600.
The changes will take effect Jan. 1.
The increases won’t bring the cemetery to full cost recovery, noted finance director Jerry Idialu during a Dec. 15 council meeting.
But it brings things to a “sustainable level to operate the cemetery.”
Reaching full cost recovery would take a “much steeper climb than this,” he said.
In order to reach full recovery by 2027, fees for plots or niches would need to increase from $1,910 to $5,201.
Councillor Sherry Burke was the only member of council to vote against the fee increases.
“I just feel this is outrageous,” she said.
She called the increases “much too aggressive,” and said while she’s not against moving towards cost recovery, she’d like to see the increases phased in “at a much slower pace.
“This is a service we have provided for generations in Mount Forest.”
One argument against continuing to fund the cemetery, in part, with taxes is that not all taxpayers will use the cemetery.
“But there’s lots of facilities within our community that folks pay for that they would never use, such as recreation facilities [and] schools,” Burke noted.
“It takes a community to provide these services.”
Burke said she compared the new Mount Forest Cemetery rates with local private cemeteries and is concerned increasing rates at the township cemetery will lead more people to go elsewhere.
She asked how the township would cover maintenance costs at the cemetery if usage, and therefore revenue, dropped significantly.
Township clerk Karren Wallace, who prepared the report about cost recovery at the cemetery, noted “private cemeteries are quite often operated with volunteers, so their expenses are much less,” enabling them to have lower fees.
Idialu said cemetery maintenance is completed by township staff and if maintenance at the cemetery is reduced the staff would still have other work to do around the township.
Wallace noted reducing maintenance would mean “less grass cutting … less tree canopy maintenance … less of everything.
“And we have a beautiful cemetery that is well maintained.”
Mayor Andy Lennox said, “We don’t know what is going to happen in terms of sales of units, so if there is a significant change we would have to revisit it at that time.
“We don’t have any way of predicting what’s going to happen to sales based on the price increase.”
Lennox added he is “very supportive” of the rate increases.
