News Article, Notice to the Profession
The BAO is moving to a 2-page overview of its Consumer Information Guide as its standard handout to consumers
Notice to the Profession
Starting today, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) has made its new two-page overview of the Consumer Information Guide (CIG) the standard that we print and ship to licensed operators for consumers.
Licensees will continue handing out to consumers the current 24-page BAO guides that you have on hand, until they are near depletion. Effective today, all licensee orders for the guides that are placed with us will only be for the two-page overview of the guide.
The CIG continues to be available online to the public and licensees. The printed CIG will be also available upon request to the BAO, as indicated in the new condensed two-page overview of the guide.
As of today, any funeral establishments, other licensed operators and personal licensees ordering the printed CIG will receive only the printed two-page overview of the guide as the standard handout.
This change makes the two-page overview of the guide the standard that the BAO will ship to licensed operators – free of charge, as it has always done.
“I’ve consulted with our three BAO *advisory committees, made up largely of licensed professionals across the province. They provided valuable advice this summer about the content of the condensed guide. They also all support this change and appreciate that the full printed 24-page guide will remain available upon request,” says Jim Cassimatis, CEO/Registrar, BAO.
(*The three advisory committees (AC) are: Cemetery, Crematorium & Municipal AC; Funeral and Transfer Services AC; and the Faith-based AC.)
| Meets requirements of the FBCSA The two-page overview of the guide has been approved by the Registrar and meets the requirements of the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 (FBCSA) as the standard handout to be provided to consumers. Please note: The 24-page BAO CIG will continue to be the official version, whether in an electronic or printed format. Website links to it are prominently displayed on both sides of the new two-page overview of the guide. Availability and orders The process remains the same. The new two-page overview of the guide is to be made available at licensed establishments and given directly to customers along with service contracts at point of sale. “Just as you’ve been doing with the 24-page guide,” Cassimatis adds. Orders by licensees for the two-page overview of the guide will continue to be placed using the BAO’s Licensee Portal CIG page. Here’s a preview of the new CIG – Overview |
| Purpose The purpose of this change is to provide the BAO CIG in formats most widely used by the public. Digital has become the norm for information consumption, including among people aged 65 and older, as reported by Statistics Canada in 2022. This change will: 1. Provide consumers with valuable information in the format they prefer. – Further informing this change is the fact that public uptake of the CIG, on the BAO website, has been on a steady increase for several years. (The data on that has been published in BAO annual reports, also found on the website.) 2. Move the BAO to an even more digital-first communications bias to effectively and efficiently reach the public throughout the province. – This is in alignment with the government’s overall direction to online information access. 3. Be more effective in the spending of the BAO budget, which is entirely comprised of your licence fees. – We estimate saving 60 per cent of our current annual CIG printing costs, which works out to $60,000 a year – plus further savings in shipping costs. |
Practice
The practice of providing a printed handout to grieving families at your businesses will remain the same. The only difference will be that the two-page overview of the guide will be given to your customers rather than the CIG.
The two-page overview of the guide includes prominent website links to the online PDF version of the CIG.
Customers must provide consent to receiving the CIG in an electronic form. You must provide the printed CIG to any customer who does not consent to receiving it in an electronic format (e.g., PDF) by email or accessing it via an electronic link to BAO’s website.
You may provide a two-page overview of the guide to customers who consent to receiving the CIG electronically, but do not give you an email address to which to send a link to the CIG.
Remember
Any of your customers or members of the public visiting your business may request a printed CIG by contacting the BAO, as indicated in the two-page overview of the guide.
If you need a printed CIG for yourself, as a licensee, you also may order it through the email address provided in the two-page overview of the guide free of charge.
The full CIG remains available on the BAO website here for everyone.
Use them up
Please note that it’s important to use up most of your CIGs on hand, before making your next order with the BAO – just as you have in the past.
The CIG is updated a few times a year with changes or additions to content. So, keeping old copies on hand too long would mean they become out of date. The two-page overview of the guide provides links to the CIG online, which is always the most current.
Please note: If you have any guides with the cover image showing dark blue water, please do not hand those out. They would be at least four years old.
Available in 10 languages
On this BAO webpage you will find a PDF of the English and French versions of the two-page overview of the guide, which we have also had translated into eight other languages that many people speak in Ontario.
The two-page overview of the guide is now available in:
| Arabic | Portuguese |
| Chinese (Traditional) | Punjabi |
| English | Spanish |
| French | Tagalog |
| Italian | Urdu |
