Garden would allow for scattered ashes
With 86 per cent of people in Ontario now opting for cremation instead of conventional burial, it’s time for some changes in the way we inter remains. Amanda Kelly, of Awake Canada, an Oro-Medonte based start-up, told Clearview Township council members at a recent meeting that cemeteries aren’t designed for this.
“A 50-square-foot area can accommodate six casket burials or a scatter garden capable of absorbing 63 ash scatterings,” said Kelly.
This is significant, she says, at a time when many municipalities are running out of capacity in their cemeteries.
Kelly says roughly 60 per cent of people indicate they would like their ashes to be scattered in nature, but cremated remains have a very high Ph level, making them toxic to plants and soil, comparable to pouring bleach on the ground. Through their Municipal Cemetery Adoption Program (MCAP) Awake is offering Clearview access to a patented soil solution that converts ashes to earth, helping to turn unused cemetery space to sustainable scatter gardens.
Clearview township clerk Sasha Helmkay-Playter told council that the program will be initially be launched at Stayner Union Cemetery.
“This is in an area which has been deemed unsuitable for casket burials due to the high water table,” she said.
Council approved an expenditure of $8,800 to launch the MCAP program. That fee covers initial set up and one year of monitoring. Over time, the soil in the scattering garden will become compacted and can then be topped up with more of the soil solution to facilitate additional interments, making it renewable in perpetuity. Depending upon how quickly approvals are received from the Bereavement Authority of Ontario, the new scatter garden in Stayner could be ready as early as this fall.
Kelly says the scatter garden will allow the municipality to offer more spaces more affordably. The services of a licensed funeral director will still be required to arrange cremation and file necessary paperwork. After that, it will be up to the municipality to decide if families will be permitted to scatter ashes themselves, or if that task will be assigned to someone designated by the township. Helmkay-Playter told council a monument wall could be added with room to engrave the names of those interred in the garden.
Kelly says the idea of a scatter garden was born during the pandemic as she sat in her living room where the cremated remains of several loved ones sat on a shelf.
“It occurred to me that one day, everyone I love will be sitting on this bookshelf,” said Kelly. “I have no children, so what happens when I’m gone? I’m very nature-oriented so when I was walking my dog through the forest I thought, ‘This is where I’d rather be.’”
Awake Canada is currently working with the cities of Hamilton and Niagara Falls, and a church in the Waterloo Region. The plan is to focus on Ontario for now, then expand across the country.
