The Okotoks Cemetery may look like it has room to spare, but it’s time to invest for the future now, says a consultant hired by the Town.
Erik Lees, of Lees and Associates Cemetery Planners, told town council there is enough land in the cemetery for casket burial for the next 31 years and cremation burial in columbaria and smaller plots for about 11 years. He said the Town needs to begin considering options to expand the cemetery in order to plan for the next 60 years, which is a fairly short horizon for cemeteries.
“Although it may not seem like a burning platform, in our business, in this kind of time horizon, we really urge you to consider this as just around the corner,” Lees told council.
Growth and development in Okotoks and the surrounding area will drive the need for space in the coming years, he said. Currently, the death rate in Okotoks and area is lower than the provincial average, but it is expected to rise significantly over the next 60 years as the town’s young population ages, he said.
“As many as 4.4 people per thousand, it’s anticipated by those in the actuarial business, will be dying in this community, which equates fully to 13,500 people will die in town and another 22,000 deaths in the surrounding MD community,” said Lees. “We’re here to ensure those families and the community and the narrative that cemeteries tell can be told not only now but well into the future.”
Lees provided council with his recommendations for the life extension of the cemetery after consultation with the public in the spring and ongoing collaboration with the Town.
Some options include adjusting plot density and building more columbaria above ground for the interment of cremated remains to be more land-efficient. The current cremation garden, where the columbaria are located, is due for expansion is 2017, he said.
Okotoks parks manager Christa Michailuck said the plans to epand the cremation garden are underway and should go to tender in the new year.
“There will be additional walkways, there will be additional columbaria units,” said Michailuck. “There will be varying types of columbaria choices in the expansion garden.”
She said in addition to the traditional community columbaria there will be family vessels. These will allow families to purchase an entire columbaria and inter several urns inside, rather than buying individual niches in a community unit, she said.
The expansion will also include a scattering garden for people to scatter their loved ones’ ashes, or any portion of them. In addition, a memorialization wall will allow those who have not interred the ashes of a loved one to have a place of remembrance.
“Say somebody scattered their loved ones’ ashes out at sea or in the mountains as people often do, but they want to have a place to go remember, they can have a plaque made up and put on a special memorial wall that we’ll have in the new expansion area,” said Michailuck. “So even though the ashes aren’t interred there, they have a place to go.”
The cremation garden is a start, but Lees said the entire cemetery needs to be expanded by a minimum of four acres to accommodate the next 60 years of growth and burial needs in Okotoks. The tricky part is finding suitable land, he said.
The location should be either currently zoned, or capable of being zoned to public service, he said. There should also be minimal impact by noise from roads, highway or heavy industry, he said. Provincial guidelines dictate a cemetery must be at least 250 metres from a well or spring from which water is drawn, 30 metres away from any spring or water course and 10 metres away from any draining field, he said.
It’s also not ideal for the new land to be located across town from the existing cemetery, he said.
“If there’s another cemetery that’s quite remote from the existing one, the operational inefficiencies associated with that would really come back to haunt the Town as the years and decades go by,” said Lees.
He said land adjacent to the cemetery is ideal for expansion and should be considered, and the sooner the better. It would take a few years for the land to be prepared and settled enough for burial, and the land costs could also rise significantly post-annexation, he said.
Lees also recommended the Town begin investing more into its perpetual care fund – a savings account designed to maintain and care for the cemetery for years in the future, long after potential operating revenue from the sale of plots is gone. He said the Town should be collecting 10 per cent from all columbarium interments for the care fund and cemetery development fund.
He said the perpetual care fund will require an additional $4.1 million to be fully self-sustainable by 2065.
“With those price increases, you’ll boost your care fund $4.1 million in 50 years with an annual interest rate at that time of about $65,000,” said Lees.
Michailuck said there are no concrete plans to expand the cemetery, but the parks department will be putting forward a capital budget item for council to consider with its 2017 budgetary talks.
Mayor Bill Robertson said he would be in favour of securing more than just four acres of land, given the fact the population of Okotoks and surrounding area is expected to spike over the next 60 years.
He said making sure there is adequate land to support the families in the region is important and a decision that should not be taken lightly. It’s important for the Town to begin looking at suitable land to create a sufficient and beautiful space, he said.
“The cemetery has always been a pet project of mine,” said Robertson. “If there’s any pristine park area in town it should be the cemetery out of respect for families who are left and those who are buried.”
