The Business of Dying - Part Two: Cemeteries

Tuesday, 03. 30. 2010  –  Category: News and Features

Not only is Vancouver the most expensive city in Canada to live, it is also the most expensive city in which to die.

Real estate prices are higher here than anywhere else in the country, and it isn’t just for corner lots and condominiums that Vancouverites pay through the nose. The skyrocketing cost of space has also translated to burial plots, making Vancouver the most expensive place in Canada to be laid to rest.

Mountain View Cemetery is the only cemetery within Vancouver city limits, and has been run by the city and funded by the taxpayer since the first body was interred in 1887. The sprawling parcel of land situated between 41st Avenue and 31st Avenue on Fraser Street has expanded from its original size to cover 106 acres, and for anybody planning on being laid to rest alongside the other 150,000 souls there, you better start saving now, because it’s going to cost you.

How much exactly? Around $20,000 dollars if you want one of the few casket burial plots that will go up for sale this summer. If you’re looking for a place to put your urn in one of the newly constructed columbariums (a sort of urn house) it will cost you between $2600 and $3800. Columbariums are like condo buildings: the higher the floor, the higher the price.

Mountain View Cemetery manager Glen Hodges said the prices aren’t a cash grab, but a product of unique market conditions and a sense of responsibility to the people of Vancouver. Hodges, who holds a degree of commerce at the University of Saskatchewan, was affable and open about the cemetery business as we walked the grounds of Mountain View earlier this month.

“We’re the only cemetery in Vancouver and we’ve been closed for 25 years. There’s a lot of demand for space here and we have very, very, very little supply, so we have this market situation, and then from the taxpayer’s standpoint we’re trying to relieve that subsidy. So we owe it to the taxpayers who have subsidized this place for the last 30 or 40 years to get the highest value we can for it.”

He said that despite the high price tag, Mountain View’s lenient rules on interments per plot bring them in line with other sites around the Lower Mainland.

“We allow a lot more interments in those graves than other cemeteries. If you’re looking to bury one casket, yeah we’re really pricey, but if you’re looking to bury a couple of caskets and in the next generation some cremated remains, then on a per interment basis we’re not that bad.”

After contacting a number of cemeteries from major cities across Canada it was clear that the prices in Vancouver and the surrounding area were far above that you would find elsewhere.

“That’s just outrageous,” said Terry Dyck, manager of Mountain View Cemetery in Calgary. “Our most expensive plot is three grand. $20,000 is just gouging people.”

Prices were slightly higher in places in Ontario and in some places back East, but the difference between those cemeteries and Hodges is that Mountain View in Vancouver owes the city of Vancouver $14 million.

When Mountain View ran out of space in 1995, a business group came forward offering to purchase it from the city. The cemetery was losing upwards of $400,000 per year and had no space left to sell and thus no income. The acquisition had support amongst council, but opposition from the public over the perceived sale of the city’s heritage stopped the transaction. Council realized that if somebody were willing to sink money into Mountain View, there must be a way for the cemetery to to turn a profit.

Fast forward to 2006 and Glen Hodges has come up with a master plan to make the cemetery profitable again. He, Shirley Chen from the non-market housing group, and others, approached city hall saying that with around $14 million they could create a new space and make the cemetery profitable again. They took their idea to a man named Ken Bayne, who at the time was Director of Financial Planning and Treasury. Council remembered the interest from suitors in the past, saw the potential, and in 2007 approved a $14 million loan.

“At the time we were pumping $800,000 to a $1 million a year into the cemetery and it was simply going to go on forever if we didn’t make changes. We looked at privatizing a number of times and council didn’t want to go there. We took a look at improving the state of the building, the facilities on site and decided to provide an opportunity to generate some income and grow the perpetual care fund.” Bayne said. “You could provide a market for something you could sell then the cemetery could become self sufficient and become a community asset. From my perspective it was an attractive business opportunity.”

Bayne, who has since taken a non-financial position as the General Manager of Business Planning and Services says that it isn’t uncommon for municipal properties to take out sizable loans from the city, and in the case of the cemetery it was essential if they wanted to keep Mountain View in the hands of Vancouver.

“It was really more of a political decision not to sell it. Not even to bring in a private operator. At the time the Loewen Group was very active on the market and expressed interest, but council was unwilling to transfer that property to a private operator.” He added, “The public sector doesn’t do as good a job as the private sector at managing a business. We’re not as nimble and more transparent. There was a lot of work done to validate that proposal. What’s happened in the cemetery has incredible potential. What we have to do is market it and realize potential.”

While the term for paying back the $14 million loan hasn’t been set yet, Bayne expects it to be paid back over 20 years with an interest rate comparable to that you’d receive from a bank.

The potential is apparent. At Mountain View on a sunny Friday morning there were mothers pushing strollers through the park and a team setting up lights for Paul Wong’s 5, a series of art installations recently put on at various locations around the city. There were notices about upcoming walking tours and a death symposium being held April 24 aimed at demystifying death. It’s all part of what Hodges believes is a sort of re-branding for Mountain View, a way for Vancouverites to embrace the cemetery and make it more than just a place people associate with death, but with history and community.

“I think the vision for the cemetery is expanding people’s perception of the cemetery beyond that utilitarian function. We’re a place you can bury the dead and pay respects and come put a marker up, but people know that. It’s about what else we provide. It’s a beautiful place to just come and walk and where else in Vancouver is there this big open space. Most of the people that have streets and buildings named after them, the early settlers of Vancouver, they’re all here. You can talk about and learn about all those people right here. It’s the history and heritage and it’s a fascinating place to come and learn,” Hodges said. “It’s about redefining what the cemetery is.”

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