Province’s first funeral home co-op is in works
Two Avalon Peninsula funeral homes will merge, be handed over to community shareholders
In 1987, when Don Green formalized the funeral service his father had been offering for decades, he understood the need to ensure everything was done right.
Now that he’s retiring, he feels the same way.
His father, Vince Green, had begun conducting funeral services in the Winterton area in 1961, but it wasn’t until his son opened Green’s Funeral Home that it became an official business.
Earlier this year, Green’s Funeral Home was sold to the Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Québec. It’s the second funeral home business to be bought by the federation, which is now helping establish a new funeral cooperative in Newfoundland and Labrador.
NEW CO-OP
Green was approached about selling by the federation last year and felt it was the right time and the right way for him to leave the business.
“I’m 69, and not getting any younger, and we decided we’d sell,” he said.
Green’s son, Andrew, is also in the funeral service business, but was not interested in taking over the relatively small Green’s Funeral Home. Andrew is the manager of outside workers and an apprentice embalmer at Noel’s Funeral Home, which is based in Carbonear but also has funeral homes in nearby Western Bay and Harbour Grace.
Noel’s, which declined a request for an interview, was bought by the Quebec federation two years ago.
The plan now is to merge Noel’s and Green’s into one community-owned co-operative.
“I think co-ops are going to be a thing of the future,” said Green.
“It’s going to get a lot of people involved in it. It’s more than likely going to keep prices down because you have more buying power.”
QUEBEC FEDERATION
That’s exactly the thinking of David Emond, the Quebec federation of funeral co-ops’ director of operations outside Quebec.
The federation was established in 1987 to bring together the various funeral co-operatives that had begun popping up across Quebec in the 1970s.
Since another wave came onboard in the 1990s, there are now about 20 member co-ops representing about 100 locations across that province.
The federation has experience establishing funeral cooperatives beyond Quebec, with a few in Ontario and about 15 across the Maritimes. They also are involved with funeral co-operatives in the United States, Costa Rica, Peru and France.
BUSINESS MODEL
Emond emphasized that the Quebec federation is not interested in maintaining the ownership of the funeral homes in Newfoundland and Labrador for the long term, but wants to help facilitate the establishment of a funeral co-op in the province that is solely owned by the local residents, who become members of it.
“In the co-op business model, the owner is also the customer, so every decision made is made towards giving better service, having fair prices, having best practises and abiding by sustainable development,” Emond said in a phone interview.
“You’re not looking at the next quarter. You’re looking at the next 10, 20 or 30 years.”
TRUST-BASED BUSINESS
He noted funeral homes are built on trust and become almost like a family member for the entire community.
The co-op model helps keep profits in the community, Emond said, and he agrees with Green’s point about the benefits of a co-op’s increased buying power.
The Quebec federation, for example, has group purchase agreements where it will buy 1,000 caskets at a time. It also has leveraged similar agreements for print materials and advertising.
He added that the federation is also committed to buying locally, so its expenses are kept within the provincial economy as much as possible.
STEERING COMMITTEE
A steering committee was formed earlier this year to work toward incorporating the first funeral co-op in Newfoundland and Labrador in the coming months.
Later this year –– likely by late summer, three or four months after incorporation — the first general meeting of the co-op will be called and its first board of directors elected.
The steering committee, which is comprised of local residents, is being helped by both the Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Québec and the Newfoundlandlabrador Federation of Cooperatives.
“We wanted to work with them to make sure the community here would be onboard with this and we could find the right community members who wanted to take this on,” said Kristen Murray, project specialist with the Newfoundland-labrador Federation of Co-operatives, which got involved last summer.
'SEED OF A GROWING MOVEMENT'
Murray said the federation has been happy with the public’s response so far and hopes that continues as the incorporation process moves along.
“This is maybe the seed of a growing movement across the province because there are certainly more businesses out there in the funeral services area that could be interested in this,” she said.
“It’s an out for a business struggling to find a buyer, but it’s not just being sold to a greedy corporation that might not have the most ethical or community-minded mission. It’s significantly going to change who the business is for and how decisions are going to be made.”
Murray said she isn’t aware of any other funeral homes ready to do so yet, but she hopes the formation of this first co-op might inspire more in other areas of the province.
Eventually, she said, there could be a provincial federation of funeral co-ops.
At the very least, the new one can be part of both the Quebec funeral co-op federation and the provincial federation of co-ops and avail of the advice and training both of those entities have to offer.
VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE
While both Noel’s Funeral Home and Green’s Funeral Home are still going by those names, they will eventually become known by whatever name the new co-op chooses.
Emond said the new name will be entirely up to the incorporated co-op and won’t be handed to them by the Quebec federation.
Don Green may be retired, but he has volunteered to serve on the steering committee.
His expertise and experience would be an asset, but he’s not sure if he’ll make any commitments to the cooperative beyond helping it launch.
“I might get nominated to the board, but I haven’t given it much thought whether I’ll say yes or no,” he said. “I don’t want to have too many irons in the fire.”
Regardless, he said, he will continue to offer his advice to the board as needed.