‘Not enough for a headstone’: B.C.’s burial program funds too low say advocates
Global News
The Provincial Burial Program is administered through the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and it helps pay for funeral costs.
Dealing with the death of a loved one is a stressful and upsetting time in anyone’s life, but advocates in B.C. say more funding is needed for a government program to assist families through end-of-life care.
The Provincial Burial Program is administered through the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and it helps pay for funeral costs if the family or estate of the deceased person cannot afford them.
“They’d sit down with the funeral director. They choose the services that they want, whether that was cremation or burial and then they would go through a few other kinds of choices to determine what what they’d like,” Bradd Tuck, the executive director of the BC Funeral Association told Global News.
“There is a small allotment for funding for a funeral service. There’s an allotment for interment, so burial of an urn or a casket. And then the family would sign off on it and the funeral home would submit their invoicing to the Ministry of Social Development directly, and they would pay the bill for that program.”
However, Tuck said while the next-of-kind can make some choices through the program, the fees set by the province have not changed since 2008.
He said there is $1,285 allocated for basic services, which includes bringing the deceased person to the funeral home, registering the death, filling out paperwork and then the cremation or burial is paid at cost.
“Then there’s $815 put aside for any kind of funeral service,” Tuck added. “So depending what the family would want, they’d be able to determine their needs using that $815. And then there’s a preset casket, which is really kind of the minimal casket that can be used for burial and a small allotment, $200 for an urn. And then there’s a few other things like transportation that are paid as well.”
However, Tuck said those rates are based on what the fees were in 2008 and are not reflective of today’s costs.
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