Notice to the Profession: Changes to the FBCSA on cemetery care and maintenance funds, licence display, and price lists

The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) is sharing this message from the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS) on changes to the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 (FBCSA).

The BAO strongly encourages:

• Municipalities to share this message with cemeteries in their areas, and inform them to send their email addresses or postal addresses to the BAO if they haven’t already.
  -Cemeteries can send to Licensing@TheBAO.ca.  
  Or if no email address, contact us at: 
  BAO, 100 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 505, Toronto, ON M2N 6N5
• Funeral establishments to share this message with their local cemeteries, as some do not have email addresses. 

Thank you.   

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Message from the
Ministry of Government and Consumer Services

There are changes coming to Ontario Regulation 30/11 under the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 (FBCSA).

Cemetery care and maintenance funds and accounts

The changes, which come into force on January 1, 2022, will:

• Permit non-commercial cemetery operators to access the capital portion of a cemetery care and maintenance fund or account to increase the capacity of a cemetery. This is subject to approval from the Registrar of the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO), under the condition that the capital is paid back into the trust fund or account.
• Increase minimum care and maintenance fund/account contribution amounts. Please see the table for additional information, in:
  • English; or 
  • French.
• Require the Minister to review the prescribed care and maintenance fund/account contribution amounts every five years.

Licence display requirements

The changes, which come into force on July 1, 2021, will:

• Remove the requirement that cemetery, crematorium, funeral establishment, and transfer service operators (bereavement service operators) display their licence or a copy of it near the main entrance of their establishment.
• Require that every bereavement service operator who maintains or makes use of a website to promote, or to enter contracts for, the sale or provision of a licensed supply or service to make available in a clearly visible place on that website their licence number and a description of their type of licence.

Price list and BAO Consumer Information Guide  

The changes, which come into force on July 1, 2021, will:

• Require that every bereavement service operator who maintains or makes use of a website to promote, or to enter contracts for, the sale or provision of a licensed supply or service to make available in a clearly visible place on that website:
  • A free, printable electronic version of the operator’s price list; and
  • A link to the Consumer Information Guide prepared by the Registrar of the BAO. 

You can find the regulatory changes on the e-Laws website, at:

• O. Reg. 258/21: GENERAL (ontario.ca);
• O. Reg. 259/21: GENERAL (ontario.ca). 

If you provided the ministry with feedback as part of the related consultations on potential regulatory changes, we thank you again for your time and attention to these matters.

We continue to consider additional changes to the FBCSA and its regulations in response to the recommendations from the 2020 Auditor General’s Value-for-Money audit of the BAO as well as stakeholder requests.  The ministry will notify you when there are further opportunities to comment on potential proposals.

If you have any questions, please contact bereavement@ontario.ca.

The BAO is the administrative authority responsible for administering and enforcing most of these new provisions under the FBCSA. If you have questions about the implementation of these regulatory changes, you may wish to contact the BAO at Info@TheBAO.ca. 

-MGCS