By-laws

By-laws are the rules under which a cemetery and crematorium operate.

As of July 1, 2012, unless your cemetery by-laws prohibit the resale of interment and scattering rights, consumers may resell unused rights on the open market. If the resale of interment rights is prohibited by your by-laws, a rights holder may cancel a contract and your cemetery will be required to repurchase the rights at market value, less any contributions that were made to the Care and Maintenance Fund.

You are not required to have by-laws permitting or prohibiting the resale of interment rights. However, if you do not have by-laws on the matter, then the resale of rights is permitted.

You can choose to adopt a set of standardized by-laws that have already been filed and approved by the Registrar.

To do this, you need to provide the Registrar with details of the standardized by-laws you are adopting and confirm that you are a member in good standing of the recognized organization that developed them, like the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals. You must also follow specific notice requirements to ensure that your clients and members of the public are aware of any proposed changes to your by-laws.

All by-laws, including standardized by-laws, are only valid after they are submitted to and approved by the Registrar.

You need to provide your customers with a copy of your by-laws when they are looking to purchase any supplies and services, including interment rights.

When you submit by-laws for approval, a notice of the filing must be:

• published once in a local newspaper with general circulation.
• clearly posted on a sign at the cemetery entrance for four weeks.
• delivered to each supplier of markers who has delivered a marker to the cemetery in the last year.

The content of the sign and newspaper notice must be identical. Notices also need to state that:

• the cemetery operator will allow anyone who is interested to access the proposed by-law to make copies of it.
• all proposed by-laws are subject to the Registrar’s approval.

The Bereavement Authority of Ontario will then require:

• a copy of the newspaper notice.
• a photo of the sign that was posted at the cemetery entrance (The start and end dates of posting need to be written on the back of the photo).
• a list of the names and addresses of the monument dealers who received notice of the proposed changes to your by-laws.
• two copies of the proposed by-laws (If the by-laws are approved, you will be sent back one of these copies with endorsement from the Registrar).

When you submit by-laws for approval, a notice of the filing must be:

• published once in a local newspaper with general circulation.
• clearly posted on a sign at the crematorium entrance for four weeks.

The content of the sign and newspaper notice must be identical. Notices also need to state that:

• the crematorium operator will allow anyone who is interested to access the proposed by-law to make copies of it.
• all proposed by-laws are subject to the Registrar’s approval.

The Bereavement Authority of Ontario will then require:

• a copy of the newspaper notice.
• a photo of the sign that was posted at the crematorium entrance (The start and end dates of posting need to be written on the back of the photo).
• two copies of the proposed by-laws (If the by-laws are approved, you will be sent back one of these copies with endorsement from the Registrar).

Standardized by-laws that have already been approved by the Registrar do not need to be re-submitted for approval. However, you must follow the same notice requirements as when filing new cemetery/crematoriums by-laws.

If the set of standardized by-laws that you would like to adopt includes a few by-laws that are inapplicable for your cemetery or crematorium, or if you require additional by-laws added to a set of standardized by-laws, you may:

• submit the standardized by-laws with the inapplicable by-laws stroked out and initialled by the cemetery/crematorium operator.
• submit the standardized by-laws with an addendum of additional by-laws.
• submit the standardized by-laws with the inapplicable by-laws stroked out and initialled by the cemetery/crematorium operator and an addendum of any additional by-laws.

The Registrar will only review and approve the additional by-laws included in the addendum.