This is a belated response to Mountain View Cemetery wanting to expand and to Gail Mitchell’s earlier response about this issue.
Given that, according to surveys, about 90 per cent of B.C. residents plan to be cremated upon their deaths, expanding the cemetery’s burial capacity seems totally unnecessary. Even if survivors chose to bury a loved one’s urn of ashes, it would take up far less space than a burial would.
Further, a more environmentally appropriate option to fire cremation, is alkaline hydrolysis (aquamation) or water cremation. Hopefully, it will soon be available to B.C. residents, as it is in four other provinces and the Northwest Territories. The government has been lobbied about this issue for over a decade, but has not yet taken the steps required to amend the necessary legislation to make aquamation legal.
If you are unfamiliar with this procedure, used in over half the states in the U.S. as well as many countries around the world, you are not alone. Many people are uninformed, so if you’re curious, go to AquamationBC for information and an opportunity to sign the petition. It urges the provincial government to make this simple change for the benefit of the environment. Once informed, most people are in agreement about it becoming an end of life option.
Fire cremation pollutes the environment and many communities are no longer willing to approve new crematoriums which would be necessary given the size of the aging population. An easy solution is to approve aquamation — soon! Contact your MLA to get them on board.
Ellie Hallman
Cowichan Bay
