“Death of Deathcare?” British Columbia’s Funeral Profession Is Facing Multiple Challenges

The deathcare business in the Canadian province of British Columbia has garnered more than its fair share of media attention over the last few weeks — and it’s not the kind of attention anyone wants. Two separate issues are sharing the spotlight: the B.C. government’s reluctance to legalize alkaline hydrolysis and growing staffing issues that seem to be aggravated by the province’s over-complicated education and licensing process.

In both cases, it’s not members of the profession who are being scrutinized, nor are they the ones calling attention to the issue. Instead, this coverage is in response to concerns voiced by everyday citizens of British Columbia.

Expansion proposal revives call for AH

Over a month ago, the Lake Cowichan Gazette reported that authorities at Mountain View Cemetery, located in the Vancouver Island municipality of North Cowichan, had reviewed recommendations for an expansion of the 10-acre property. These recommendations were sent back for revisions to include a focus on green burial spaces and scattering gardens for cremated remains. 

While this story showed forward thinking on the part of Mountain View’s council members, one passage sparked a letter to the editor of the Cowichan Valley Citizen from a community member:

“One point that I read in this article concerns me,” wrote Gail Mitchell of North Cowichan. “[The author] states that cremations are ‘increasingly popular.’ If he means fire-based cremations, I disagree. This may have been true in the past but currently, it is losing favour.”

After describing the environmental concerns connected to flame cremation, Mitchell continues, “There is an alternative process which is becoming increasingly popular — that is water-based cremation, known as alkaline hydrolysis (AH) or aquamation. AH is legally available in several provinces, but not yet in B.C.”

More calls to action

Mitchell’s letter is one of several shared by B.C.-area news outlets over the past few years that support the legalization of AH. In fact, days after her letter in response to the cemetery story, another letter appeared in response to Mitchell’s. In the same week, an op-ed in the BurnabyNews also highlighted the fact that the B.C. government is “dragging its feet” on approving AH.

“More than three years ago, the David Eby government received a petition — now carrying 3,317 signatures — requesting that the province revise its legislation governing burials and cremations,” wrote Ian Sutton, an 84-year-old journalist and author on two books about alternative disposition. “The petition urges B.C. to join those four other Canadian provinces and one territory in making available to its residents alkaline hydrolysis. […] The government has yet to reply.”

Sutton adds that “five other provinces are also dragging their feet, some of them out of sheer ignorance,” and ends his column with the question, “What will it take for the B.C. government — and those five other provinces/territories — to take this matter seriously?”

Charbonneau’s fight

Sutton, Mitchell, and funeral professionals in B.C. aren’t the first Canadians to face their provincial government’s apathy for or opposition to AH. In 2019, Connecting Directors began following Ontario funeral director Trevor Charbonneau in what would end up being a four-year, $340,000 battle to convince the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) to allow him to offer low-temperature AH services using the equipment in which he had already invested. He eventually won that right for himself and other providers in the province in 2021.

“It was unfortunate that it happened in the first place,” Charbonneau shared with Connecting Directors earlier this year. “It was completely unnecessary, in my opinion. But we pushed through and we ended up winning. Afterwards, there were still a lot of people who didn’t know if it was legal, but then interest started to increase after Desmond Tutu selected aquamation for his disposition. That was a real turning point for us.”

Today, Charbonneau has two locations with AH equipment, and soon will be expanding into pet aquamation. And in addition to calls from curious consumers, Charbonneau is also fielding calls from his colleagues in deathcare.

“We get calls from funeral homes now and again that are looking at it, investigating the opportunity and looking for information from us about our experience,” he says. “I think as time goes on, you will see it expanding.”

More hoops

While Charbonneau eventually jumped through all the legal hoops that were restricting him from offering AH to folks in Ontario, citizens of British Columbia are blaming another entanglement of deathcare regulations for leaving entire communities with insufficient resources. 

Last week, another B.C. outlet launched the first of three installments in a series on the “Death of Deathcare” in the province. This first piece detailed a “broken” system of “restrictive regulations, the absence of a local funeral provider, and the usual staff shortages in the North” that led to one woman’s husband lying on the floor of their home for 16 hours after he died.

Her ordeal began when responding paramedics told her they weren’t allowed to transport a deceased body due to B.C.’s Coroners Act. She then called the nearest funeral home, which was in Terrace, 92 miles (150 km) away from her home in Prince Rupert; they didn’t arrive until the next afternoon.

“She finds the problem here is that Rupert does not have a funeral director or morgue to keep the body while the family waits for someone to become available from Terrace,” writes Radha Agerwal in the Terrace Standard. Neither the reporter nor the widow blame the delay on the funeral home. They understand that its three full-time staff members and one after-hours removal person are stretched thin as the only crematorium and funeral home for more than seven municipalities.

In the second installment in the “Death of Deathcare” series, Agerwal alludes to the idea that the staffing shortage plaguing the Terrace funeral home and the rest of B.C. stems from the province’s substantial educational and licensing requirements, which in at least one aspect are double those of the neighboring province of Alberta.

“In Alberta, students must complete 1,800 hours of funeral services experience to obtain their licence, while in B.C., it is 3,600 hours,” writes Agerwal. “The course has university-level microbiology, chemistry, and anatomy. Additionally, a prospective director needs to complete 50 embalmments, as well as, about 30 graveside/family arrangements.”

With the personal development industry exploding over the last few years, I’m sure you’ve heard the word “affirmations” before.

According to the English American Dictionary, to “affirm” is to state that something is true. 

Affirmations are a great tool to use when you feel yourself caught in a place of negativity, pessimism, drama, or judgement. They’re especially important for switching your mindset from being a “victim” of your circumstances, to a “creator” of them.

That’s why we thought it would be helpful to transform the funeral profession’s biggest challenges into affirmations to empower us. 

Keep reading below for 5 challenges we see the funeral profession facing now, into empowering affirmations for our transformation:

The Struggle: “I can’t keep up with all the changes happening in the funeral profession.” 

The Affirmation: “Change is the first step of evolution, and I’m so excited to witness the evolution of the funeral profession.”

Change is a constant in our profession, that’s an important, but harsh truth to remember. And why feel overwhelmed, when you can flip the perspective and get excited? Did you know that modern psychology says the energy of anxiety and excitement are the same? It’s true, you can read about it here. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!

The Struggle: “Families are just looking for the lowest priced services or no service at all.” 

The Affirmation: “Families want something different, and I am committed to finding out what it is that they’re looking for. ”

If your families aren’t choosing any of your services or opting for direct cremation, it’s not because they don’t want any services. They just don’t see enough value in your current offerings to invest it. This can be another harsh truth, yet easily flipped. What if you changed your offerings based on families needs? What if you kept testing offerings until families were knocking down your door for your services? Failure is just a nudge in another direction. So go forth and don’t be afraid to fail!

The Struggle: “The funeral industry is dying!” 

The Affirmation: “The funeral industry is having a rebirth!”

This one requires another simple switch in your mindset. Doesn’t this feel much more empowering than focusing on the struggle? It’s a revolution, my friends. Time to embrace it!

The Struggle: “I’m a funeral director… not a therapist.” 

The Affirmation: “As a funeral director I am here to support families on their grief journey, and I recognize that it takes building a relationship with my families in order to support them.”

With families seeking more experience-based support, and less product-based support, it can feel overwhelming for funeral directors to understand this switch. Many funeral pros on social media have shared that offering grief or aftercare support is beyond their scope. But the truth is, this kind of experience based support is becoming our scope. Time to get familiar with it.

The Struggle: “I’m just not able to educate families on the value of our services anymore.” 

The Affirmation: “I am becoming educated on the value of my services by listening to my families.”

One of our audience’s biggest struggles was educating families on the value of a funeral service (check out the other top struggles here). Educating families is important. However, what if we allowed our families to educate us? What if we used active listening skills, interviews and testimonials to hear what families are truly looking for from us? Now that would be a game changer!

How to use these affirmations

Since you’re reading this post, you’re probably part of the 10% of our profession is creating the future of funerals. Since you ARE the change we are looking for in our profession, it’s your responsibility to use these affirmations as much as possible! If you see anyone else getting caught on the struggle bus, help them switch their struggle to an affirmation! Try it and let us know how it goes in the comments below! 🙂

What are your favorite affirmations for the modern funeral director? Tell us in the comments below!