Waterloo council to vote on crematorium upgrades

Waterloo council must decide whether the city will spend $2.3 million on crematorium upgrades to continue providing public crematory services.

The upgrades were proposed at $1-million in 2020. The city’s aging burners at Parkview Cemetery on University Avenue East have to meet air quality standards by November if their public cremation services are going to continue being provided.

While private organizations also offer cremation, Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe told CityNews there are thousands of people who have prepaid for the city’s public option.

“We need to honour those,” she said. “We need to have additional retorting there to service the people who have already made a preplanned funeral with the City of Waterloo.”

Private locations in Ontario generally cost between $500 and $700. The City of Waterloo website has their cremation services priced at $570.

“I think it’s important to have that option for people in our community,” said McCabe, “to give them the flexibility and another alternative that’s a bit more cost effective.”

Kitchener and Waterloo operate two of the three municipally-run crematoriums in Ontario, the other being in Sault St. Marie.

Waterloo has provided the service since 1977.

The council will vote about the Parkview upgrades on Monday.

“It’s not a done deal until council has voted on it,” said McCabe. “So we’ll be interested to see which questions council has and their perspective on this issue.”