Concern over new crematorium

The president of the P.E.I. Crematorium Inc. says council should think twice before granting final approval for another crematorium in Charlottetown. Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home wants to set up its own crematorium, but in order to do so it needs council to change its bylaw, including crematoriums as a permitted use of funeral establishments as well as a sitespecific amendment for the funeral home itself.

At the moment, the process has been all but cleared for Hennessey. It will go to third reading at next Monday’s council meeting then off to the provincial government for final approval. Todd Moase, president of the P.E.I. Crematorium, says if crematoriums start popping up at various funeral homes it could drive up the price of funerals.

“If the funeral homes have full control they can charge whatever they want for cremation,’’ Moase said. “You push people like me that do it privately and charge the same for every funeral home and it’s going to start costing the public a lot of money.’’

Moase sent a letter to Charlottetown council but he says it was ignored, so he went to the media.

Moase said he’s not trying to start problems, he just merely wants to educate the public.

He also took issue in his letter with the location of the Hennessey funeral home being next door to a school.

“The cremation process can/will produce odours, can/ will produce some smoke depending on various factors in the cremation process. Example, numbers of cremations in a day, temperature of the retort, outside temperatures and most importantly the person operating the retort.’’

Moase says his operation is located in an industrial park in Kensington, away from high density population areas, such as schools, apartments and homes.

“I know there can be times the public may find offensive odours.’’

When asked if he’ll lose business from Hennessey’s if it gets its own cremation service, Moase replied, “I did their cremations, so it will take my business away from them. If they want to start marketing other funeral homes they could take things away from me.’’ Belvedere Funeral home already operates its own crematorium. So far, it hasn’t had any complaints.

Kevin Gallant, owner of Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home, declined to be interviewed for this story.

At a public meeting in January, he did say that about 40 per cent of families are opting for cremation and that people want all services offered under one roof.

If the bylaw is amended, individual crematoriums would still need to be inspected and would need to meet provincial and federal regulations in order to be installed.