In the coming months Rocky View County (RVC) will be seeking public input on its new cemeteries master plan to help better meet client needs and to provide the best possible resting place for residents’ loved ones.
“We are currently about half-developed,” said Angela Pare, supervisor of RVC Cemetery Services. “Our cemetery, the Garden of Peace, is about 70 acres and about 35 of it is developed. So we're currently working on updating our master plan which will guide our development and expansion.”
Pare said burial trends are changing, and RVC is seeking to position itself favourably to meet those changing needs.
One example Pare points to is the rising demand for “green burials.”
According to the Green Burial Society of Canada, many are now looking to be interred in biodegradable shrouds, simple containers, or caskets made from natural materials like wicker or sustainably harvested wood without any embalming fluids applied within the body.
Pare says there are few options for green burial in the Calgary area at the moment.
“Green burial is something that is fairly new to the province of Alberta,” she explained. “Right now the only (local) cemetery that offers that is in the City of Calgary, their new Prairie Sky location.
“(With the master plan), we're taking into consideration the needs of families that are requesting services like green burials. So we currently do not have a green burial area, but we are looking forward to offering that option, potentially, in the future.”
Another changing trend Pare has noted is more people are seeking cremation, and many are not seeking to purchase specific burial plots so their ashes may be scattered.
RVC has found interesting ways to meet this rising trend at its Garden of Peace cemetery, says Pare.
“Traditional burial is still very common and cremation is becoming an increasing trend,” she confirmed. “Typically we hear it's due to the rising costs of traditional burials as well as in some areas. Land capacity is also an issue (in some locations). We can do what we call columbaria, or the upright structures that have individual niche spaces where urns can be placed. And we also have a scattering garden, where cremains are scattered into the garden itself.”
While RVC has no chapel of its own at Garden of Peace, it works closely with Choice Memorial, which maintains both a chapel and crematorium on site.
“They run the funeral home separate from the cemetery, but it's a great partnership to have, and it's a great option for both of our customers and families that we serve to be able to have access to those services in one place,” said Pare.
The Field of Honour is another unique service available at Garden of Peace– a section of the cemetery specially set aside for the burials of veterans and their spouses. Each year the County hosts a "No Stone Left Alone" ceremony just before Remembrance Day to place Canadian flags on the gravesites and honour service and sacrifice with local school children.
“The criteria or requirements to be buried in the Field of Honour would be for anyone who served in the Canadian military any branch, and that they can choose to purchase a resting place in the Field of Honour,” Pare said. “We also allow the space for their spouse to be laid to rest together. And then we also provide burials for those who served in what's called the Commonwealth or its allies during war time. All we require is a proof of service.”
Rocky View County is looking forward to holding its public consultation on an evolving cemeteries master plan in the coming months, says Pare, and is looking to consult as widely as possible on what course it should take to meet the burial needs of the future in all three of its cemeteries, the flagship Garden of Peace, and the smaller localized Dalemead and Bottrel cemeteries which the County also manages.
“We're currently about to enter into our public consultation phase; so we will be holding an open house at some time in the next few months,” she confirmed. “We will be putting out a public engagement website through Rocky View County that will allow people to provide some input on what they think we should have. And then we reach out to stakeholders in the area, including religious groups, Muslim communities, funeral homes and other areas like that, which may have an interest or have some suggestions for what the future could hold for them.”
For more information on RVC Cemetery Services visit www.rockyview.ca/cemeteries-memorials.
