Learn about your death care options and how licensed professionals have adapted to changing preferences 

The March edition of Beyond magazine focuses on what you need to know about your options in funeral and death care services and how preferences are changing across the province.

This online magazine of the Bereavement Authority of Ontario is offered free of charge to make it easier for you to learn about and discuss death care services with your family.

In this edition, you’ll see that choices you, your family, and neighbours are making about death care services are gradually changing. Learn about green burials, the transition from what used to be traditional services toward direct cremations, and a relatively newer form of final disposition called alkaline hydrolysis.

To bring you this valuable information, the magazine researched reputable publicly available surveys and facts, plus we interviewed professionals including funeral home owners operating across Ontario from the north, south, and the Greater Toronto Area, in the communities of: Iroquois Falls; Cochrane; Haileybury; New Liskeard; Englehart; Strathroy; Parkhill; and Etobicoke.

The magazine also puts this all into perspective in our regular historical column, which this time centres on the history of cremations in Canada and Ontario.

Here’s a link to this edition of Beyond.

Beyond is offered as usual in digital magazine format and as a PDF, which you may print. Feel free to share this message and the link with a friend or family member.

About the BAO

The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) is a government delegated authority and not-for-profit corporation administering provisions of the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 (FBCSA). Accountable to the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement and the government, the BAO is responsible for the protection of the public interest. The BAO regulates, ensures compliance with the law, provides resources and services to licensed:

• Funeral establishment operators, directors and preplanners;
• Cemetery, crematorium and alternative disposition operators;
• Transfer service operators; and
• Bereavement sector sales representatives across Ontario.

The BAO is wholly funded by licensee fees (not tax dollars).