{"id":7349,"date":"2024-02-06T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/?p=7349"},"modified":"2024-02-06T16:38:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T21:38:03","slug":"care-and-maintenance-funds-ensure-cemeteries-are-maintained-for-their-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/stage\/care-and-maintenance-funds-ensure-cemeteries-are-maintained-for-their-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Care and Maintenance Funds ensure cemeteries are maintained for their communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Consumer FYI<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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By Jim Cassimatis <\/em><\/sup>
Interim CEO\/Registrar <\/em>
Bereavement Authority of Ontario<\/em><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cemeteries are well maintained in perpetuity thanks to companies, municipalities, religious organizations, and volunteers following the law and serving their communities.
Generational maintenance of a cemetery is reinforced by the legally required contributions to a Care and Maintenance Fund or Account by all owners and operators of licensed cemeteries. All cemeteries must be licensed, as per provincial law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The fund makes sure that they are all maintained to be in safe and accessible condition for you and your family to have a respectful place to grieve and reflect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cemeteries come in all shapes and sizes from modest burial sites for a few family members at a farm to large corporation-owned or city-owned cemeteries, where multiple thousands are buried and grieved by their substantial communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many municipalities operate their own cemeteries and assume responsibility for others that become neglected or forgotten. I thank them for their civic duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scores of those abandoned cemeteries predate provincial legislation, regulations mandating their maintenance, and a long-term funding mechanism to cover costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a trust fund<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributions by cemetery operators to the fund became mandatory in Ontario in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A percentage of the price paid by consumers for interment or scattering rights is put into the Care and Maintenance Fund or Account, which is a trust fund for the upkeep of a cemetery in perpetuity. That\u2019s why it was once called the \u2018Perpetual Care\u2019 fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trust fund\u2019s purpose is to ensure there is money available to maintain the cemetery for future generations, including after a cemetery no longer has new burials nor the revenue that comes with them from the sale of interment rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(People buy interment rights to require or direct the interment of human remains in a cemetery lot, or the disinterment of human remains from that lot. \u2018Interment\u2019 includes burial of human remains, including the placement of the remains in a \u2018lot\u2019 \u2013 a grave, crypt or niche in a columbarium. Read page five of our BAO Consumer Information Guide<\/a> for more definitions of bereavement sector terms.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the fund, cemeteries would eventually fall into disrepair, become unusable and eventually unknown to their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it pays for<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interest or income from the fund is used to pay for cemetery care and maintenance including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n