www.firstpost.com/world/in-canada-funeral-costs-are-so-high-that-bodies-are-going-unclaimed-13772423.html
In Canada, funeral costs are so high that bodies are going unclaimed â Firstpost
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.
I have to wonder how many people just used money as an excuse to not pick up the body of an estranged family member.
I bet there was some cost analysis going on. Like “is he worth that much? Naaah
I mean, if I don't feel like they are worth spending $30 on when they were alive, I definitely don't feel like they are worth spending $3000 on when they are dead.
Costs $3300 usd for basic cremation no service. Just a cardboard box given a week later. Can’t even imagine what a full service burial costs with headstone.
If you're lucky around 7000. Unfortunately had to pay for one for my son and one for an uncle in the last few years.
That's rough, I am sorry to hear that on top of the shock of losing your son, that you had to deal with such astronomical costs. My daughter passed almost 3 years ago and I was very fortunate that the cost was not as high. (The pandemic did a number on our finances) It would have been her 21st birthday and I was just thinking about the different costs that people need to deal with, on top of it all. (Too many flurries of thoughts I guess)
Thanks. Definitely not a club I wanted to be in.
My takeaway is that life is short. Make the best of it while you're still here.
190€~ 230$ in Lithuania. Crazy price difference.
The prices are so high in the UK/canada/etc because it’s essentially legal emotional blackmail. It does not cost that much to cremate the body, have half an hours service and return the ashes but they charge a fortune because they know that the grief stricken will pay it.
The vulture industry is well-established and thriving.
Yeah pretty much all the funeral homes in my small town (18k population) there are like 5 funeral homes and they are all really nice buildings. I live in an old person town to be fair.
Costs $1,200 CDN, here.
Damn and I live in Midwestern state away from a large city. So not even hcol. Jeeez
Just leave me to the vultures.
Or you just don’t roll that way?
I got a couple uncles in that category
I get you, but we are all humans and if you can do something for your brother you should be able to help a bit to an outsider.
I’d die happy knowing my last wish was to be cremated and it happened in bed at a no-tel motel. No more work than necessary.
Well thats sounds like a real plan, you’d have to pay for all that before you pass on to have that successfully or else in the mind of who ever is in charge you will be done how that person wants you.
No one is in CHARGE of me. That money is locked away already.
Locked away? How so?
Trust funds cannot be touched in probate. The money is already transferred prior to death.
How is that done damn i have to learn a lot
I DM you
Just pop an avocado seed in my bum and bury me face down in the garden.
I used to work in the business. What you are saying is true. In Canada the unclaimed are not allowed to be cremated. There are plenty of estrangement cases where the person was buried by the government.
“Not allowed”? Do you know the reason?
There is always a chance someone would be a Muslim. Muslims and other religions are against cremation. The family could sue if they found out. We had someone who had a prepaid cremation and burial in a columbarium niche. He left his kids $1 each. They did not claim his body so we buried it in the “unclaimed section “. I spoke to our legal counsel and he said the company has to protect themselves from lawsuits so we did not use the prepaid cremation. He had no service and no one at cemetery and no marker.
There is always a chance someone would be a Muslim. Muslims and other religions are against cremation. The family could sue if they found out. We had someone who had a prepaid cremation and burial in a columbarium niche. He left his kids $1 each. They did not claim his body so we buried it in the “unclaimed section “. I spoke to our legal counsel and he said the company has to protect themselves from lawsuits so we did not use the prepaid cremation. He had no service and no one at cemetery and no marker.
Was it explained to the client ahead of time that the service they paid for in advance would not be performed if their body was unclaimed?
If not, this sounds like fraud.
It is extremely rare for someone to pre-pay and their family not carry out their wishes . In over thirty years it only happened a few times. Families are relieved and grateful that this burden and expense was taken care of ahead of time. I always recommend for people to pre-pay.
That's not necessarily true. My father was homeless in Vancouver BC and went unclaimed. They cremated him.
My experience was in Ontario. Each province is different. Very few actually have no relations. Many will sign. Quite a few will not. In Ontario they will cremate if a family member or representative signs. If it is a “hands off” burial then in Ontario you will be buried in a plot.
My grandmother did that in the 50s. My grandfather was basically a homeless person, and he was found dead with some floosie because he fell asleep smoking a cigarette. The Baltimore Police called my grandmother, and she said “I don’t have a husband; you bury the bastard.” Then she hung up. That’s all I know.
Floosie, lol
Correct term for the time
That was my college marching band section leaders nickname
Did he die with the floosie in a flop house?
He was probably looking at her gams too!
Hey! That’s no way to treat a broad.
Nah, that dame was nothing but trouble.
What's a floosie?
Loose woman
A misspelled floozy.
A ho, skank, thot
A woman of ill repute, one who is assumed to "put out", "get jiggy with it"
I worked at a funeral home in Ontario. Social services will pay for a no frills funeral.
The coffin is a yellow cardboard box with black lettering
And the gravestone has no name
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13d
And this horse
And my axe
Gravestone for burying
I think that's a big assumption that there's a burial. These days it's usually a cremation. Cheaper to burn a body and put it in a plastic box than spend money on land.
What does it say in black lettering? COFFIN? DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE?
No, it says “DEAD HUMAN: Do not eat”
I don’t know what I expected
A leftover NoName box from Roblaws.
Contains 1(one) Robert Paulson
I got a name!
It’s not yellow, it doesn’t have black lettering on it, and it’s not cardboard.
It’s plywood. The identical casket to the one used by countless families (with money) who opt for a simple cremation.
Source: 3 years as a licensed cemetery director in Ontario.
What’s up with this sub and funerary professionals of Canada???
That's actually my dream coffin. Something that rots quickly.
In Romania when you die, the mayor's office gives funeral money to the family, it was like 1.5k euros 2 years ago. It's more than enough for a respectable funeral. A year ago some dude made national headlines, asking the mayor for his funeral money as he wants to use them while still alive. And since no one asked such a question before the mayor asked national higherups and he got a straight answer like "Give him the money while he's still alive if you want to go to prison". 🙃
Why waste $ on a funeral. Coffins, plots, stones, etc all cost a lot of money. Just burn the bodies and save the space.
Or better, literally bury the bodies. Wrap it in biodegradable cloth and bury it to return bodies to nature rather than embalming and going through a morbid display of dead human carcasses or burning them which causes a lot of air pollution
Extort the dead, extort the newly married, extort the new parents, extort every single joyful and epically sad moment in human life. Why not. Why not.
We're in the age of exploitation.
We always have been...
Yes but things have ramped up to a dizzying pace.
WhAt ArE yOu A cOmMuNiSt??!?
The low brain cell people who are against regulations that directly make life less shitty blow my mind. Never any solid reasoning behind it.
Always turns out to be some sort of ism and fear that people they dont like might benefit.
Oh God I got into a discussion with someone whose been on unemployment for YEARS. Topic was about how much food western countries waste and there should be a law that gives it out homeless services/food banks or charities.
They were absolutely vehemently against it because that's socialism and would lead to communism which always leads to fascism! Capitalism and free trade is the only way to keep the world free.
Like my dude, you live off the government tit?? Some people really do have rocks in their heads.
My wife finally got her mother's ashes (it's a long family fight story, short version is she has them now). We are interning her ashes and her half brothers ashes into one of those cemetary wall dealies... 8 mother fucking grand! That's almost as bad as when Lex Luther stole 40 cakes!
It set us back $8000! That's a lot of money just to put ashes in a wall!
Well yeah, its not your wall.
For 8 grand its mine now! At least for the next 60 years...
Hahahaha you going to keep it safer than ever huh.
I've already installed an arm system and pikes!
What the fuck.
Wow thats something.
Fuck that, bury my ashes under a tree sapling in the middle of the forest
Lol i didn’t know Lex was on anyones mind at all,
You cry is very uncomfortable,
“That is why we are strengthening the Canada Pension Plan to provide a top-up to the death benefit.”
If you do that, funeral providers will simply boost their prices to match. If they know that the government will shell out $X then they'll increase their prices by $X as well.
You just summarized the higher education inflation crisis as well
Insurance pays whatever and now my medicine cost hundreads of dollars costed about 60 when I was a kid
You want funerals costing like a house cause this is how you get funeral houses
Only $X? How very naive of you
Rught wing politicians dont care do and a lot of left don't even understand that either.
Or perhaps people are just over the whole death industry. I don't give a crap if I'm given a funeral or sold for parts. I'm dead and definitely dgaf.
When my father died this time last year, we simply did not have a funeral. My family is extremely private, so my mother called everyone of importance and that was it. His ashes are now in a lovely urn on my mother’s shelf, surrounded by pictures and things he liked.
I think they're usually more for everyone else, not the dead person
Funerals are a money-sucking scam
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13d
Plots of land at a cemeteryis kind of a scam now as well. One plot at my local cemetery is over 30k. My family agreed that we're all just going to get cremated as that wayyyyyy cheaper
Where I live this sets you back at least 10k
We owned a plot. It was going to cost us 4 GRAND just to open it to have my grandma interred with her husband, not including the other funeral expenses like casket or services. We had to have her cremated.
Do they not have a donation program? My living will basically says “give me to medical research, then whatever”
Unclaimed bodies should by default be donated to medical research if needed or for organ donation. If they have no family or the family doesn't care about them, it seems fairly reasonable approach to me.
You cannot use an unclaimed body for organ donation.
Organs must be harvested immediately at time of death. There is no time to ask around to see if anyone knows them.
Can't even afford to fucking die here jfc
Funerals are basically the same market as real estate, you just buy up empty plots and sell them at a premium
It depends: if you go to the big brand funeral houses it will cost you thousands, but I have a guy and he'll get rid of a body for just a few hundred bucks.
I have no children. When I’m old ima burn my house down and wander off into the woods. Fuck everyone.
Can I have your house when I'm old instead?
Yeah sure. It’ll still be a pile of ashes but you’re welcome to it.
I mean the lot it stands is technically free now that you burned the house....
Half the battle right there
The land is most of the value
Hopefully you don’t get dementia and forget your plan.
The first signs of it, that’s it. Fuck living in those facilities sitting in your own shit for hours at a time.
Tommy Shelby?
You have a house?
I do. Got it before the great reset aka COVID and an hour from the closest city so it was actually affordable. It’s probably doubled in value by now. What a joke.
I hope they’re able to find a spot for Drake 🥁
This is not about cost. In Canada they will pay for your funeral if you don’t have the means. They also give a death benefit of $2500. This is about people who don’t have families or friends.
Just because you have the means doesn't mean you want to shell out a few grand for someone you didn't like.
Depending on the province, they may not pay for a funeral if they are not satisfied that your surviving family doesn't have the means. The $2500 death benefit is part of CPP, and doesn't necessarily apply to everybody. And $2500 might not even get you cremated and handed over in a plain box with no service (location dependent).
Now, the govt won't let bodies rot away in a funeral home or morgue, so if the body is unclaimed or the family refuses, they'll eventually take care of burial in a potter's field.
Well who am I gonna believe, a random redditor or the article? Everything in the article says it’s about affordability. It mentions the death benefit, but that’s no guarantee that the families won’t have to pay anything.
Wait: you actually think an article is implicitly more credible than some random person on the Internet? You haven't dealt with many journalists, have you?
What don’t you believe?
That they will pay for the funeral
"next of kin were identified but unable to claim the body for a variety of reasons, the most common being money."
“People weren’t claiming bodies because they realized they couldn’t afford to bury them,” said Jim Dinn, leader of the province’s opposition New Democratic Party.
Location matters: An adult single grave with the Mount Pleasant Group on average costs $2,800, but the price in midtown Toronto was $34,000 as of April 1, according to the website of the cemetery, funeral and cremation provider across the Greater Toronto Area. The price excludes the opening and closing of the grave, funeral, tombstone, taxes and other items.
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.
“This is not a respectful end for Canadians,” he said. “The reason deceased individuals are going unclaimed by their families is about affordability.”
Every city has a program called special supports that will pay for a funeral. I deal with them all the time.
Coverage for basic funeral expenses may be provided on behalf of deceased Toronto residents who do not have enough money in their estate to cover these costs. An eligibility assessment will be made that considers the financial situation of the deceased person and his/her spouse at the time of death.
Help with funeral expenses can include:
Funeral services: Toronto Employment and Social Services will pay a funeral service provider for administration of funeral services in accordance with the established rates.
Burial services: Toronto Employment and Social Services will pay for burial services which includes costs to open and close the plot.
Cremation services: Toronto Employment and Social Services will pay for cremation as well as the cost of scattering the remains in a cemetery or a burial in a pre-owned plot.
This comment is correct, iirc there is also federally funded programs to help with this sort of thing based on your income
CPP has a $2500 death benefit, but it's not applicable to everyone (most, if you ever worked and contributed to CPP). There are some other programs, such as those for veterans, but I'm not aware of any federal program specifically to help low income families with funeral expenses.
The funeral home when my dad died (last fall), didn't know anything about this. We were able to get 2500 from his Canada Pension. But I ate the rest of the cost.
There was a provincial program, but he didn't qualify because he was too old. And even then, it was a maybe we could qualify, or CP, but not both. And had to decide which one we wanted to go with.
I would love for my body to not be claimed when I die as apposed to creating an expense for someone.
There are plenty of cremation services that are under the $2500 from the government leaving no cost to family.
Maybe in Toronto, but not in St.Johns NL. There is 2 facilities that do cremations, both with similar prices. I'm guessing in more remote areas of the country it's even worse.
Toronto, sure, maybe even lots of other large cities. Absolutely not every municipality.
You missed this bit in the article:
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.
“This is not a respectful end for Canadians,” he said. “The reason deceased individuals are going unclaimed by their families is about affordability.”
Emlhasis added.
It literally says the support you're talking about exists, but it isn't enough in many cases to cover the costs fully.
There are 8 billion humans, why do we expect to have little bits of land preserved for us for ever?
Bodies should be cremated and the ashes scattered.
Maybe a name added to some memorial wall would be fine but a headstone is crazy for the majority of folk
Phew....
This is about people who don’t have families or friends.
With fewer and fewer children then this is only going to balloon in the future. Not that I blame people for not having kids, I chose not to have them either. I guess once I'm dead its simply not my problem any more.
What happened to Potter’s fields?
Last thing I want is to be a financial burden to my next of kin.
What are they doing? Leaving them in the street?
Yes, all dead bodies are put out on the street for family members to claim. That's exactly how that works.
Bring out your dead!
Which is crazy because we can't put out the garbage the night before because it attracts bears, but here we are, just leaving dead bodies everywhere.
BRING OUT YER DEAD
Generally these are direct-cremation places and not traditional funeral homes which want a lot more money upfront.
What happens is the cremains go on a shelf and the account goes to collection. If it’s unsuccessful the owner has to wait a prescribed amount of time before they’re allowed to bury the remains in a sort-of mass grave setup at the back end of the cemetery at their own expense.
In Halifax I think could be wrong on city they are freezing them in shipping containers in the back alley for a period of time 2 years possibly then the government takes care of it
This headline is based on unclaimed bodies going from 20 percent to 24 percent.
Talk about an extreme headline.
That is quite a massive jump
It's a cruel industry. They'll cremate your loved one for free, no issue. You just can't attend.
They don't have budget no frills no service cremations over there?
Don't you also lose your inheritance that way?
According to deathsapprentice.ca a death educator on Instagram, this is total BS. https://www.instagram.com/p/C7KiptbSCh0/?igsh=eHpnNng5cHFmcWV4
"When the press and politicians actually notice anything about death-care, they still manage to get it wrong.
Reality check: first of all, this REALLY IS NOT all that much of a problem. The number of unclaimed bodies in morgues may rise and fall a bit at any morgue across the country, but bodies are simply NOT being abandoned in some crazy new way.
Next: digging holes, building retorts, heck, even opening an online funeral business and subcontracting all the work do existing funeral providers all costs money. This business is hyper-regulated, but it operates within a free-market, capitalist economy. The costs WILL be passed on to the consumer, and IF there's money to be made, money is going to be made. THAT is a different problem, and one that really needs addressing. But not now.
Canada actually has something called a Death Benefit, which is payed to the estate after producing a receipt for dispostion. In basically every part of Canada today, there are providers who will work within the $2500 benefit provided to an estate after death to offset funeral expenses.
If there's truly no money in the estate, like none at all, the various provincial ministries will assist. Canadians are guaranteed a "dignified disposition" under provincial legislation.
This really IS NOT a problem. But as you can see, it's headline grabbing. Heck, even the leader for the official opposition has said it's "too expensive to live OR die in JT's Canada". Good lord. These boys will do anything for attention. Again, not my problem today.
Today, I want you to understand that the reason bodies are being left in morgues is because we live in a death-denying society. We no longer ascribe any VALUE to after-death ceremonies. Huge swaths of society no longer think that it is "worth it" to treat death like part of life.
This is one of the biggest costs we pay for living in a death-denying culture.
You don't have to be afraid of this headline. It's absolute nonsense. But you do have to be afraid of the tsunami of grief that is about to wash over every part of our society as boomers continue to age and begin to die in the next few years."
I'm sure "failure to claim" a deceased relative happens in every country too. Sometimes it's because they don't want to pay for a funeral and sometimes it's because they didn't know or didn't care that their relative died. (Can happen sometimes with the latter, if the deceased person just fell off the radar somehow or wasn't on great terms with the rest of the family.)
Canada actually has something called a Death Benefit
Yes, we do. It's part of the Canada Pension Plan. And it only applies to people that were CPP contributors. If you never worked or only ever worked under the table, you don't qualify. There are also minimum contribution periods to qualify. Quebec doesn't participate in the CPP, but their essentially equivalent provincial plan (QPP) has a similar benefit.
Canadians are guaranteed a "dignified disposition" under provincial legislation.
This doesn't mean the province will pay for the funeral. If your survivors pass the financial means test in the province where you die, they will pay a set maximum, after you contribute the death benefit (if applicable) and whatever they decide you should be able to contribute. Based on my own experience with being the executor for an extended family member that was on disability, they can be brutal with probing for untapped sources of funds. Including insisting that you start a GoFundMe or similar, and they only contribute after that is exhausted. If you don't claim the body because you can't or won't pay, the govt will step in and take care of it, basically cremation/burial in a potter's field. And many funeral homes aren't as willing to work with the death benefit as you might think.
I wonder how Canadians can somehow blame this on immigrants.
Canada, are you guys doing okay?
And what is the Gov doing about this damn, How can you ghost on a ghost like that.
Damn immigrants driving up... funeral prices!! /s
Wait, you can do that? Just not claim the body and save all that money?
Time to start composting our bodies! Way better for the environment than burial in a casket or cremation. Burying your loved ones is free as long as you let the state do it ecologically. Civil burial!
They make more money selling those bodies off anyways
I've never understood why people even want a funeral. I'll be dead, so I don't care what happens to my body, and I prefer the cheapest method of disposal possible. I'll use that cash on a vacation instead.
Right there with you. My living will states "harvest all usable items/organs then just cremate" . The VA will accept the body due to my service, but personally I don't care about my dead body.
My will is pretty similar. If science wants my carcas, they're welcome to have it.
Maybe countries in general should stop monetizing our lives?
Lets go back to "heres your dead relative; deal with it or people will throw you out of the neighbourhood before dealing with it themselves but with no respect"
Im not saying "make living anywhere free" but funerals/cremations are from a logical perspective fucking stupid considering how much they cost. You dont pay for water/food, you paid for someone else to grow the food or install the water, and maintaining both of those.
You pay for a funeral because its one of the two perceived options we have - imagine if a business advertised "heres a solution we dont offer, doesnt benefit us financially, and the general population cant tell you if its even legal"
So imagine, right? If we stopped forcing markets into existence? The US would just crumble altogether because theyre 95% religion/war.
I’d like to read the article but seriously fuck that website
My instructions are to let the government deal with my corpse. They refuse to deal with me in life, I'll be damn sure they'll deal with me in death
Maybe we should do something about that. Minimal standards or something because everyone is out to get rich at everyone else’s expense. Humanity is lost out here in the North American Continent.
My family owns funeral homes in Ohio, it's largely a scam. They prey on peoples grief for profit. They ended up so rich, nasty people, treat the rest of their family like shit. When my grandpa got sick they showed up just long enough to tell us they weren't going to pay for anything, no one asked them to. Dudes dead now, took the fox news approach to covid and he found the fuck out.
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13d
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whats up with canada's economy?
I hope if I die first, my husband says ‘nope sorry no money’ because I’d hate for him to spend it on such BS.
I’d do it for him, because he likes the idea of being buried/tombstone, the whole thing - but I don’t care what happens to my corpse.
Thanks Obama… 😂😂
USA here, can believe this occurs far more frequently than we care to think. During Covid my uncle passed away 100% by himself with none of us knowing, he burned a lot of bridges but still not something I'd wish on anyone. He had been dead for four months, couldnt get in contact with anyone before they finally managed to contact me through my mother and I had to pass the ball to my larger family cuz there was no way in hell either of us had money for that. The larger part of our family crowd sourced to get his funeral expenses covered, but he was another few weeks away from his body going to where ever unclaimed bodies go when they are taking up space for too long. Welcome to late stage capitalism baby.
Canada is a broken country, I used to love my country but I don’t even recognize what it has become.
Downvote me all you want but as a Canadian I can tell you housing, underperforming economy, drug use, violent crime, and foreign interference are all getting worse. Tell me how Canada isn’t struggling mightily right now?
Oh please.
Explain to me how Canada isn’t dealing with multiple crises right now? Housing, drug overdoses, underfunded healthcare, foreign interference, and corruption. All of these things have gotten worse under the current federal government.
It's super weird because all those things have gotten worse under my current provincial government as well. Hmm, could there be any connection?
Nah, it's all Trudeau's fault!
Oh cool. Huge spikes in immigration leading to a housing crisis and an overwhelmed health care system, or the decriminalization of drugs in Vancouver, are all solely the provincial governments faults now huh. What about his broken election promises of which there are a few. Free pass there too?
It’s not all Trudeaus fault but people like you won’t assign him his fair share of the blame, and I dislike all the options we have at a federal level. I’m curious how you excuse all the corruption scandals this government has had?
Great, you dislike all the options so you will rail on about how bad Trudeau is to try to get PP elected. I'm sure that will do wonders for healthcare, housing, and everything else. You dislike all options, but funny how you put the sole blame of this countries problems on Trudeau, and none of it on the conservatives fucking everything on the provincial level. Odd how it always works like that with people like you.
Edit: "I'm not going to argue with you, I'm just going to respond and block, so I can get the last word in and you can't respond to me."
What a joke.
First: Reading comprehension is hard for you huh, I didn’t say he was responsible for all the ills that ail Canada but I will blame him for his role in them, you seem to refuse to do this.
Second: You know nothing about my voting history but for the record I voted NDP in the most recent provincial and federal elections, and I have a deep disdain for the Conservative government in my province.
Third: I never mention Pierre at all, you just assumed I’d vote for him and that I would think he would fix anything, where the fuck did I say any such thing?
Look I’m not going to argue with someone that can’t or won’t read what I wrote. Keep burying your head in the sand I guess and don’t hold any politician to account for their mistakes.
Find me something in Canada that isn't a rip-off
It’s like $900 for a simple cremation. If you’re willing to leave a body at a funeral home for that, you weren’t that close.
$2500 here on North Vancouver Island
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