Grieving families struggle to find funeral services in B.C.

Dawn Eby-Quast was in the devastating situation of having just lost her husband when she found herself in another dilemma.

She had no access to funeral services in her home city of Prince Rupert, B.C.

"I remember standing in the hallway outside the ER … all by myself, thinking, 'Now what do I do?'" said Eby-Quast, 76. "I had no clue what I was supposed to do." 

Now Eby-Quast, whose husband Lloyd Arthur Quast died at 82 in Prince Rupert Regional Hospital on Feb. 9, is calling on the government to provide more support for people in the aftermath of a loved one's death — particularly residents in more remote areas of the province where funeral services may be scarce. 

There are also calls within the funeral services industry for government to provide more support and ease the licensing process.

The 13,000-plus residents of Prince Rupert were left without a local provider when Ferguson Funeral Home closed. The actual timing of its closure remains unclear. Consumer Protection B.C. said the funeral home informed it of its operational status in late 2021 and provided business closure forms in August 2022. 

Mayor Herb Pond says there are no burial services in Prince Rupert anymore. 

The closest option is MacKay's Funeral Services in Terrace, about a 140-kilometre drive east.

When Eby-Quast's husband died on a Friday, she had to wait until Monday to call MacKay's, which isn't open on weekends.

Transporting the body was the major problem.

"My stepsons were going to build a box and take their dad in the box to Terrace to get cremated because that's what we needed to do," she said. 

Eby-Quast and her two stepsons were spared this when Northern Health told them an autopsy was required to confirm the cause of her husband's death. The health authority transported his body to Prince George, around a 720-kilometre drive away, and then back to the funeral home in Terrace. 

But the many challenges Eby-Quast faced while grieving her husband of 28 years have left her wondering why more support isn't available. 

"This wasn't a pleasant experience to have to go through all this," she said. "I really wish there would have been somebody [who] had given me a piece of paper that said, 'This is what you need to do today and tomorrow.'" 

For example, Eby-Quest said, Service B.C. could implement a program to help people in the early days of grief and a service to transport bodies to local funeral homes for people who live in rural communities.

The B.C. Ministry of Citizens' Services did not respond directly to a query about whether the province would or is considering providing assistance in the early days of grief or a way to transport bodies in rural communities without such a service.

Service B.C. has a website that includes information on what to do after someone dies and says it has staff who can help those who need it to fill out documents related to death certificates, burial and transfer permits.

Travelling great distances for funeral services is a situation Prince Rupert residents have long faced, according to Pond. 

While Ferguson Funeral Home offered burial services in Prince Rupert, people still had to travel to Terrace if they wanted a cremation, he said.

"I think there's some issues, particularly where a person passes away in their home. You have to wait for the funeral home to come and collect that body — that, obviously, is an extra trauma for people," said Pond. "It can be very hard." 

Religious considerations

A lack of local funeral services also creates a significant barrier for those with religious guidelines, said Hilal Adam El-Bissar with the B.C. Muslim Association in Prince Rupert. 

He said the closest mosque is in Prince George, and people will travel as far as Edmonton or Calgary to get the funeral services they need. 

Many move out of Prince Rupert to live closer to where such services can be accessed, said Adam El-Bissar. 

It also can be expensive. The average cost of a traditional burial is between $5,000 and $10,000, according to insurance company Dundas Life, and cremations can cost between $2,000 and $5,000.

"It's brutal. It adds a layer to the grief of the family, and it's definitely not an easy situation," Adam El-Bissar said.

Barriers to increasing services

Emily Bootle, a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Kamloops, B.C., says she has seen a lot of change in the funeral service industry since 2017, when she started.

She has seen funeral businesses without succession planning that would allow them to continue beyond the lifespan of the original owner.

"It's important to know that the funeral industry is a private industry but is providing an essential service," Bootle said. 

Funeral services are not generally on the decline in B.C., but rural areas face more challenges due to resources, said B.C. Funeral Association executive director Bradd Tuck. 

"When those communities start to have fewer individuals there, or there's not a lot of health-care resources, so older people leave the community, then the sustainability of the business comes into question," Tuck said. 

Currently, 163 funeral homes are licensed under Consumer Protection B.C., but many are in larger communities. For rural areas, funeral homes are often two to three hours away, Tuck said.

The B.C. Funeral Association is advocating for the province to increase funding and available support for funeral services. 

It is asking that the provincial burial program be increased to match current funeral fees and that a new biennial review process be created to ensure fees continue to be matched. 

"It is something that every one of us is going to need to encounter at some point, so we need to make sure that the profession is supported for the communities when they need it," he said.

The licensing process also needs to be streamlined, people in the industry say.

To become a funeral director in B.C., a two-year apprenticeship program offered by the B.C. Funeral Association must be completed. Applicants have to complete 3,600 hours of supervised fieldwork and training to get licensed, according to Consumer Protection B.C. 

"If we're wanting to serve these [more remote] areas with licensed providers, we need to work out a way of doing that licensing that's accessible," said Bootle. "If we're not going to be licensing funeral providers, then we need to make it easier for people who are not licensed to be able to provide those services.

"As the margins are shrinking and as it becomes less appealing to either purchase businesses in these areas or open them, the government may find a situation where they're needing to take a hands-on role."