GREEN BURIAL NEWS, in the rest of British Columbia
Breaking Ground  ~ Beyond Hope


Penticton Lakeview Cemetery

Penticton Lakeview Cemetery has created a green burial area in native Okanagan grassland
Len Robson, Public Works Manager at the City of Penticton confirmed that they have included a “green burial” section in their most recent upgrades and expansion of the Lakeview Cemetery. Mr Robson says they hope to have all of the bylaw changes in place and the section open to the public early in 2018. 

July 2018. 

Green Burial in Cache Creek

The Village of Cache Creek Municipal Cemetery is located at 1290 Stage Road. Current interment options include traditional burials for both human and cremated remains, a columbarium, scattering garden as well as an environmentally conscious green burial section.


Powell River Regional Cemetery

A simpler version of green burial is offered in Powell River where bodies can be buried in a field at Powell River Regional Cemetery. Individual graves are not marked, but a plaque with a loved one’s name is placed at the entrance to the meadow.
Green Burial has come to Prince George.  The City of Prince George's Memorial Park Cemetery has an operational Green Burial Section. The fee for a Green burial plot is $2736.00 and a cremation plot in the Green Burial Section is $684.00. Individual headstones are not permitted; there is a memorial rock for engraving and graves liner are not required.
Contact Cemetery Coordinator: 
Kim Edwards
Cemetery Coordinator, Memorial Park Cemetery
3300 Memorial Park Lane,
Prince George, B.C. V2L0B5
250-561-7500
kim.edwards@princegeorge.ca
Prince George Memorial Park cemetery - CITY HANDOUT PHOTO

Update on Penticton's Lakeview Cemetery Green Burial Section.  July 2019

May 11th, 2018
Email from Jacqui Ellis, Cemetery Office, City of Penticton

..."The new bylaw has been approved, a copy is attached. We are in the process of allocating the sites in the new areas and should have that confirmed by the end of May."...

Jacqui was kind enough to send along copies of the completed bylaws and the updated price list including green burial plots.


In mid-June, I visited Lakeview Cemetery to see how the green burial section was coming along.  In short, it's not ~ yet. 
A cemetery employee told me that due to other more urgent maintenance at the cemetery, the green burial section was not ready.  The large boulder that is to hold the names and dates of those buried in the green burial section hasn't been put in place and the area is not yet marked. 

Watch for another update this fall.  Hopefully the green burial moon will soon rise over Okanagan Lake.   (Nicola Finch)
SUMMER 2019.  
Penticton’s Lakeview Cemetery is now officially offering Green Burials!  Well done Penticton!

A green burial plot in this city cemetery is almost the same cost as a traditional plot; about $2800. Roughly $1400 for the plot and $1400 for the ‘opening and closing’. So while it is not a cheaper option, it IS an environmentally friendly way to return ourselves to the earth. 

The City of Williams Lake is planning to include a Natural Burial section when the need arises for a new cemetery.  This is expected in the next 5 or 10 years.  
In the meantime, Green Burial BC and Cariboo Community Deathcaring Network is working to establish a stand alone Natural Burial Ground for people and pets. 
Contact us for more information or to be involved.

“After decades of denying our mortality, (North) Americans are starting to accept, if not embrace, this fundamental fact of biology: that the natural end of all life is decomposition and decay. Instead of fighting it at almost all cost as we have for the better part of the last century — with toxic chemicals, bulletproof metal caskets, and the concrete bunker that is the burial vault, all of which will only delay, not halt, the inevitable — we’re finally seeing the wisdom of allowing Mother Nature to run her natural course.” 1  
1. Mark Harris, Grave Matters: A Journey through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial (New York: Scribner, 2007), 186.

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