International Desk
Publish: 19 May 2024, 10:52 am
Mount Pleasant Funeral Center, Toronto. Photo: Collected
In Canada’s some provinces have recorded a jump in unclaimed dead bodies in recent years, with next of kin citing funeral costs as a growing reason for not collecting loved ones' remains. The phenomenon has prompted at least one province to build a new storage facility. Demand for memorial fundraisers has surged. The overall cost of a funeral in Canada at the top end has increased to about $8,800 from about $6,000 in 1998, according to industry trade group estimates.
A funeral can cost C$2,000 to C$12,000, said Funeral Services Association of Canada President Jeff Weafer, up from about C$1,800 to C$8,000 in 1998.
In Ontario, Canada's most populous province, the number of unclaimed dead bodies rose to 1,183 in 2023 from 242 in 2013, said Dirk Huyer, the province's chief coroner.
In most of those cases, next of kin were identified but unable to claim the body for a variety of reasons, the most common being money. Finances went from being the reason for 20% of the total unclaimed bodies in 2022 to 24% in 2023.
Officially, in Ontario, a body is deemed unclaimed after 24 hours. But the coroner's office staff may spend weeks trying to locate next of kin, he said. If the relatives confirm they are unable to claim a body, the local municipality works with a funeral home to provide a simple burial.
In the meantime the body is kept in a morgue or temperature-controlled storage facility.
"There's always been families that are in need of additional assistance. (But) I've never seen the number of unclaimed remains that currently exist," said Allan Cole, owner of the Toronto-based funeral home MacKinnon and Bowes.
In Quebec, the number of unclaimed bodies grew to 183 in 2023 from 66 in 2013. In Alberta, the number of bodies for whom no next of kin could be located to claim them rose to 200 in 2023 from 80 in 2016.
Historically, the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador did not encounter enough unclaimed remains to warrant long-term storage, a spokesperson for Newfoundland Health Services told Reuters.
The number of memorial fundraisers on crowdfunding site GoFundMe has ballooned to 10,257 in 2023 from 36 in 2013, a spokesperson for the site said.
Government support for funerals has failed to keep pace with rising funeral costs, advocates have said. The federal government announced a C$2,500 top-up to the C$2,500 death benefit in the Canada Pension Plan in the April budget.
"Losing your life partner or spouse is devastating for a senior. It can also be an immense financial burden after a lifetime of hard work," Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, wrote in an email.
"That is why we are strengthening the Canada Pension Plan to provide a top-up to the death benefit."
That is not enough, Weafer said._Reuters
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