This northeastern Ont. funeral director wants to retire after 45 years — but he can't

Funeral directors across northern Ontario say fewer people are entering the industry, forcing some to delay their retirement. 

Collin Bourgeois is a funeral director with Théorêt Bourgeois Funeral Home, with locations in Sudbury, Verner and Sturgeon Falls. 

After 45 years in the business, Bourgeois said, he's staying on the job because there's no one trained to take over. 

"I certainly tried to retire," Bourgeois said. "It lasted three weeks."

He said there's a pressing need to get more people in the field as the current slate of funeral home directors in the province nears retirement age.

The Ontario Funeral Service Association's website currently has over a dozen active postings for jobs across the province, as well as listings for two funeral homes up for sale. 

"There's just nobody interested in doing the work," Bourgeois said. "Our colleges are not receiving any applications for funeral service education programs. And professional associations are trying to recruit as many people as they can. There just doesn't seem to be any interest at this time."

Bourgeois said the demands of the job — late-night calls at 2 a.m. are not uncommon for him, plus dealing with people in various states of emotional distress — could be keeping new recruits at bay.

"The conditions are not always the best." he said. "There's night work, there's evening work. There are situations that we are exposed to that are just difficult to live with and to see every day," Bourgeois said.

"It takes the right person to do this. We sometimes call it a vocation. You're called to this. You are asked to do this. It comes from within you. You can't fake it."

In Sudbury, Collège Boréal runs one of the province's two programs for funeral services. The other is out of Humber College in Toronto.

Donald Perreault, a professor with the Funeral Services program at Collège Boréal, said the school admits an average of 15 to 20 students into the program every year, the bulk of them being female.

He's noticed changes to the industry, including fewer new workers, but said that in recent years, the prospect of taking high-paying jobs in mining or government has been more enticing for people entering the workforce.

There's also another challenge that new directors face when they enter the industry: attrition.