THIS NOVA SCOTIA SPECIALIST IS RIGHT... AND OLDIES KNOW IT... we need to get off our lazy arses and walk around more - eat better.... and lay back on the booze and cigs.... COME ON... ya all know what i'm talking about.... get up and move... and move more...u can do it.... dying ain't so hard... but inviting it in b4 u need 2 is a no no ...come on..
some NO SHEEEEEET SHERLOCK...
DR. JOHN ROSS: Reboot multi-tier, haphazard ‘disease
care’ system
DR.
JOHN ROSS
Published August 7, 2015 - 4:57pm
Published August 7, 2015 - 4:57pm
Bill
is sitting in a wheelchair in the sun outside the main doors of the Halifax
Infirmary having another cigarette. The ground is littered with cigarette butts
from many others before him. There is a large bandage wrapped just below his
knee. He is 61 and is back for his third amputation on his left and now right
legs from the complications of diabetes and smoking.
Greta
is screaming on the ambulance stretcher in the hallway of the Emergency
Department. She is 91 and had a stroke almost two years ago that left her
unable to speak, unable to walk, and screaming for up to 18 hours every day.
She has been to Emergency countless times. Numerous specialists and home-care
providers have been unable to find a management solution. Her daughter is
beyond exhaustion.
There
are thousands of other stories about our “health-care system” not meeting our
needs or those of our families and neighbours.
We
read or hear about them in newspaper columns, during political announcements,
from experts and review panel commissions and reports. Almost daily, we are
redefining the problems and offering recommendations. Most of them make
complete sense.
Why
are we still talking about this? The answer is simple: Walt Kelly, the POGO
cartoonist, used the following line that explains our problem: “We have met the
enemy and he is us.”
When
we encounter one of those thousands of situations similar to what I have
illustrated above, we blame the government. We are not sure what “the
government” is, but we are sure it is its responsibility. Often we blame the
premier or the politicians of the day. Opposition parties grab headlines while
they try to score votes, pointing out the health-care failures, and online
bloggers who comment on news articles quickly fall into finger-pointing
politics, often missing the point of the original article.
Why?
Because change is painful. It is scary. It could mean giving up something. We
think someone other than us should change. The government is failing to take
care of us — “I paid my taxes!” — but we have a major system design problem:
government jobs are generally secure and attract people who are often
risk-averse. Considerable time is consumed planning and analyzing, controlling
messages, and protecting politicians from the media. Big-system change, that
requires trying new methods, and taking risks, will not come from government.
Before
I go on, what is “health care” anyway? Yes, a stupid question — or is it?
“Health care” is doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, blood tests, CT scans,
medications, right? It is buildings, unions, bureaucracy, white coats,
paperwork — most things beyond our control, right?
What
if someone said “health improvement” and caring for health is happening every
day in the public library? How about on the skating oval? It happens in church,
or community fund-raisers, or at many other events where people meet and help.
What
virtually everyone thinks of as “health care” is actually reactive disease or
injury care — something has happened and we try to patch up the damage. There
is absolutely a need for this, but it is not “caring for health.”
Smoking,
obesity and inactivity — all preventable — are three main causes of disease
that could be eliminated. Getting more doctors and nurses, buying more CT
scanners, inventing new treatments are not long-term solutions for
self-inflicted illness.
Poor
education, poverty, gender inequality, unsafe communities, lack of social
supports are part of what the World Health Organization and Health Canada call
the “social determinants of health.” Managing these should be the role for
government. Micromanaging our disease care is not a good fit for government.
Reactive
disease care (what we unfortunately call “health care”) —only one of the
determinants, but by far the most expensive — cannot possibly keep up with the
damage caused by not addressing the social determinants.
Some
diseases are not preventable. But many are. It is like building cars with
faulty parts — when the car company recognizes the problem, there is a massive
recall to fix the problem. In our reactive disease-care non-system, we just
apply more duct tape and put the person back on the road.
The
current “health care system” is specifically designed to react to disease and
injury. Doctors get paid — really well — to react. Why would they want to
change?
Hospitals
are not wellness centres — why would they change?
Pharmaceutical
companies make enormous profits from reactive disease care — no initiatives
will be coming from them.
But
our long wait times contribute to lost productivity and hurt our
competitiveness and economy. Furthermore, people in pain move less. They gain
weight and that contributes to other health problems. They get depressed.
Regular activity decreases the incidence and progression of Alzheimer’s and
dementia and therefore our wait times may be increasing the burden of dementia
in Canada.
In
February 2014, the panel led by Ray Ivany released the report Now or Never — An
Urgent Call to Action for Nova Scotians. It should be mandatory reading for
every citizen in this province. It clearly summarizes the current economic
state of Nova Scotia and makes clear recommendations.
It
did not highlight the fact that a healthy population is critical for success,
so addressing our social determinants of health combined with an effective
reactive disease and injury-care system are vital. Economic growth can only
occur if the people are fit and healthy. A call to action means, “Stop talking
and do something.”
So
what can we do?
All
health-care providers in Nova Scotia need to read a report from The Canadian
Academy of Health Sciences, 2014: Optimizing Scopes of Practice — new models of
care for a new health care system.
It
recommends, like many reports before it, that we must change the way we pay
“health care” (actually “disease care”) workers. People need a go-to “first
assessment care” (primary care) experienced clinician (someone with broad “generalist”
training) to assess their needs. It does not have to be a doctor. Maybe the
problem can be dealt with on the spot. Maybe they require some more specialized
knowledge and skills. There should be minimal waiting and smooth handovers.
Individual
doctors are incorporated small businesses, paid through a special branch of the
Department of Health, negotiated by the union-like Doctors Nova Scotia, with
unclear accountability.
Nurses
have their own unions and are accountable to their employers. Other professions
have other unions, accountable to employers through different managers.
But
there’s no overall “team” framework or accountability. Where are the patients
in all this? They are not a player. But they should be. There could be a
patient-managed health spending account that covers the basics (reasonable
standards regulated by government) and patients could participate in directing
their own care. In fact, patients could be part of the governance of the clinic
where they receive their care.
Imagine
this:
The
government sets quality and performance standards only. The new Nova Scotia
Health Authority and IWK negotiate contracts and pay health- and disease-care
workers. They pay individuals or whole teams based on accountability and
performance that reflect quality of care and outcomes.
Patient
and family feedback would be a core value. The pay goes to the mixed team of
physicians, nurses, social workers, physio/OT, dieticians, pharmacists,
addiction counsellors, administrative support — from small clinics to hospital
units. One pay pipeline. All members hold one another accountable and are also
accountable to patients and the health authorities.
All
this can be done — hold your breath — through both public and private provider
systems. The WCB, RCMP, Department of National Defence and First Nations all
have separate systems for their members.
Dentistry,
physiotherapy, vision care, psychology, massage therapy, medications, etc. — up
to 40 per cent of total health care spending — is outside “medicare.”
Most
doctor’s offices are incorporated small businesses. Thousands of Canadians
leave the country and spend huge sums of money elsewhere. Why is that money not
being spent in Canada and put back into “the system?”
No
one complains that Air Canada has different fares for different privileges
because everyone gets to the same destination at the same time, either
stretched out sipping champagne or crammed into an economy seat. Multi-tier
“disease care” is already happening in a random fashion in Canada. Let’s wake
up and organize it better.
Use
one information system that links patient information that can be securely
accessed by all care teams. Enable patients to interact with disease- and health-care
providers through text, email, portals, telemedicine. Do not pay for medical
busy work; pay for value and effective care. Help people stay at work or in
their homes. Disease and health care should be supporting people to promote
their productivity, not forcing them to fit provider-designed non-systems.
Furthermore,
all disease-care providers need to embrace Choosing Wisely Canada — a campaign
to reduce unnecessary medical tests and treatments. We waste a huge sum of
desperately needed money on useless tests. We also need to initiate difficult
conversations about end-of-life care, not recommend fruitless treatment options
and stop thinking that dying is a medical problem; it is the natural end of the
life cycle.
Governments
and individuals should know which care activities are safe, harmful,
worthwhile, or a waste of time or money.
There
is another side to this discussion: What can individuals do? There is a really
simple list that requires really difficult behaviour change and discipline:
•
Talk to one another, in person. Humans are social organisms. Look up the
“social determinants of health” and discover the importance of humans helping
one another and the relative futility of the “health-care system” that tries to
repair preventable damage and is spending all the money.
•
Stop smoking.
•
Eat well (generally less) and move more. The human body is more than two eyes
and two thumbs to operate mobile devices. What you put in your mouth and do
with your body play a big role in your physical and mental health.
•
Older people and those with serious medical conditions need to sit down with
their families and openly discuss end-of-life plans. One hundred per cent of us
are going to die. As a physician, I have seen many hundreds of people suffer
needlessly at the end of their lives because there was no plan. Take a tour
through a hospital intensive care unit and see the results of not having a
plan.
•
Demand that we re-purpose schools and community centres in rural and urban Nova
Scotia and combine them into one. Imagine opening at 6 a.m. for fitness and
multi-purpose uses. At 8 a.m., community members work together with
schoolchildren to prepare and eat breakfast. At 9 a.m., school starts with
assistance from community elders — reading and tutoring. It gives them
meaningful purpose and establishes respect. There are at least two activity
breaks. Lunch is prepared from local sources together with the children — they
learn that food is not all deep-fried, frozen, or wrapped in plastic. At the
end of the school day, the building is used for multi-purpose community
activities until 11 p.m., if needed. It is used year-round. Education topics
include learning self-discipline, healthy habits, how to plan, and macro- and
micro-economics from Grade Primary onward.
Regarding
Bill, the man who just lost more leg to diabetes — we co-own that problem. He
needed to stop smoking years ago — ideally, he would never have started. He
needed to lose weight — ideally, he never would have gained so much.
Now
that he has diabetes, he needs to take responsibility for managing it, but the
team responsible for his care also needs to identify his discipline challenges
and develop a plan to help him. They should monitor him more closely, using
various small wearable devices, coach him via home video-conferencing and
arrange regular home visits. His whole family and possibly even workmates can
be involved. We all own Bill’s problems, because we are all paying a lot for
them.
Greta’s
problem was not predictable. She and her family needed a care plan from the
hospital stroke team and primary care team near her home that would be dynamic,
based on her signs and symptoms. The goals of care and expectations need to be
discussed and clarified early.
Her
daughter needs one capable go-to care co-ordinator. She should be able to
communicate with that care co-ordinator via email, text, or a portal and
arrange a video conference if needed. Her medical records should be readily
available to all care providers electronically because there is one provincial
health authority and the IWK. Greta and her daughter want to stay at home. Her
end of life should be dignified and supported.
Albert
Einstein is credited with observing that “the definition of insanity is doing
the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Are we
insane? We all have our work cut out for us. But no more talking — it’s time
for action.
Dr.
John Ross is a Capital Health emergency room physician and a professor and
residency program director at Dalhousie University. He is also the author of
the Ross report, tabled in 2010, on how to improve emergency services and many
other aspects of what should be patient-centred care.
-------------------
READERS’ CORNER: Heed Dr. Ross’s
urgent call for health reform
Published August 13, 2015 - 4:55pm
Last Updated August 13, 2015 - 5:00pm
Last Updated August 13, 2015 - 5:00pm
Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece “should be mandatory
reading for every Nova Scotian,” writes Malcolm Macpherson. “The transition
from ‘sickness’ care to wellness is challenging and will require money,
education, and most of all, attitude change.” (TED PRITCHARD/File)
Dr. John Ross once again presents an informed, balanced and
poignant opinion piece (“Health system overload,”
Aug. 8). One more call to action.
Momentum is building for change. Patients more than ever
are demanding it. We have the technology. We have community partners. The
bureaucracy/system is the bottleneck.
The theme of the Ivany report, “A Call to Action,” comes to
mind. Surely that was not just a call to action to those outside the system?
We remain hopeful that the premier and the minister of
health will listen to the people on the outside who are willing to be part of
the solution — so that we don’t have a “system overload” in the future.
Dianne Kelderman, president and CEO, Healthconnex
Political
will lacking
Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece should be
mandatory reading for every Nova Scotian. The transition from “sickness” care
to wellness is challenging and will require money, education, and most of all,
attitude change.
Too many citizens treat health care as if it is their
privileged entitlement. They present to physicians, arms folded, and say, “Fix
me, but don’t ask me to pay for anything extra or try to change my risk-laden
lifestyle.” Many need genuine help in changing, but too many feel that someone
else needs to be responsible for their health. This has to change.
Maybe the incentive would come from hitting them in the
wallet. The government must work with health-care professionals to increase the
accountability and link it to altered payment plans. The political will to
challenge the Canada Health Act is absent, with no desire to charge user fees.
So we have no choice but to increase taxes and/or make significant cuts if
current services are to survive. If people only realized what a difference they
could make by using some common sense. However, common sense isn’t that common.
We truly have met the enemy and “he is us.”
Malcolm Macpherson, Valley
Sickness-care
system strained
We found Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece to be very
important, and the lack of response to it surprising.
His assessment of the problems of our existing system, and
suggestions for how we can move forward, including taking more responsibility
for our own health, were well thought out and exactly what we need to hear —
again and again!
If we continue to elect governments that refuse to use a
greater percentage of our tax dollars to encourage and motivate everyone to
become healthy and avoid illness — especially chronic illness — our current
“sick care” system will surely fall apart under the strain.
Let’s all get behind Dr. Ross, and in particular his
recommendation for repurposing schools and community centres and combining them
into one facility — open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. year-round, available for
fitness and other multi-purpose uses, including the preparation of food and
teaching students nutrition, engaging community elders as mentors/assistants,
expanding learning to include self-discipline, meditation and broad-based
mandatory physical exercise, and developing civic responsibility from grade
Primary upward.
There is much more needed in broad-based learning/education
than simply preparing for the job market and the demands of industry.
Cathy Carmody, Dr. Norman Greenberg, Cheryl Munroe,
Margaret Armour, Rod McCulloch, Halifax, and Dr. Douglas Carmody, Summerside,
P.E.I.
Gov’t
too busy downloading
Dr. John Ross’s excellent opinion piece on health-care
reform (“Health system overload,” Aug. 8) offers a plan of action that should
be implemented.
Will our government act? Probably not; it is still
frittering around trying to find government services to download to private
companies.
Our provincial government started out by threatening to
contract out home care for the aged and the disabled to private interests,
arguing that it would save money. How typical — trying to save money on the
backs of two of the most vulnerable groups in our society. Apparently, that
ill-conceived venture has been abandoned for now, while our politicians look
for other government services to download to private industry. And this in
spite of evidence that downloading does not work; in fact, it usually costs us
more.
We have a badly broken system that desperately needs
reform. The federal government is well on its way to legalizing voluntary
euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.
Sadly, many of the sick, the old and the disabled may see
that as the only option open to them as the system continues to deteriorate.
And remember, it is a short step from voluntary euthanasia to compulsory
euthanasia.
John McNulty, Halifax
-------------
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.... Dr. Ross got it right on..
Homegrown health fixes
In his critique of the Nova Scotia health-care system (“Health system
overload,” Aug. 8), Dr. John Ross proposes to “use one information system that
links patient information that can be securely accessed by all care teams.”
Health Department bureaucrats will be skeptical of many of Dr. Ross’s
prescriptions, but they’d wholeheartedly endorse implementing one patient
information system for everybody. However, the evidence shows this approach is
excessively expensive and generally does not work.
United Kingdom spent 12.7 billion pounds over six years to implement a
single master system, but caregivers did not trust the system and resisted its
use.
In Nova Scotia, CBC reports the province spent $37 million since 2004
on its preferred electronic medical record (EMR) system for physicians.
Meanwhile, a locally developed EMR system, which received no subsidy, is
achieving greater success than the Ontario system financed and promoted by
government.
Review of patient systems implemented around the world will show that
the Ivany approach delivers the best results technically, socially and
economically. Encourage local solutions to meet local requirements. The role of
government is to develop and promote integration standards so that all
health-care teams have secure access to necessary information in whichever
system it resides.
Bob Brown, Halifax
Health-care self-help
Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece on how our health-care system is
not caring for health, rather providing reactive disease or injury care, was a
breath of fresh air. He is bang-on in stating much of our illnesses are
self-inflicted.
His reference to the World Health Organization’s “social determinants
of health” correctly identifies some things government should target.
Governments can take immediate steps to promote healthier eating habits
and increased physical activity. Impose higher taxes on unhealthy foods. Make
healthier foods more affordable. Make diet knowledge and physical activity a
mandatory part of the education system. Provide incentives to encourage fewer
hospital visits and for demonstrating physical activity. Control the
expectations of corporations to have employees connected 24-7. Consider “total
disconnected” times. Support people living in poverty, on the streets or
experiencing mental challenges.
Imagine the reduced demand on our overloaded health-care system from a
populace with healthier eating habits aligned with daily caloric requirements,
being physically active and experiencing less stress.
Dennis Coates, Lower Sackville
Home-care service sloppy
Re: John McNulty’s Aug. 14 letter about our government’s apathy toward
the health-care system and the services for our most vulnerable populations:
I’m sorry to inform him that home care has already been contracted to a private
company.
My mother is receiving home care and the treatment has been absolutely
disgraceful. Out of five visits, they’ve only shown up on time once. They have
arrived when not scheduled; staff have lied to accommodate their social
calendars vs. what was scheduled; they have falsified time sheets and reports
about what tasks they performed; and they have often failed to follow detailed
instructions.
And this company is charging a premium, significantly more than the
average charged by other companies. I have called the company and Capital
Health (who are investigating) almost daily about significant issues, yet the
extremely poor service continues.
My mother is convalescing following surgery and has no cognitive
issues, so she will only require home care for a short period, but I fear for
those who do not have someone to monitor and advocate for them. I’m horrified
to think of how many are being taken advantage of and what they are being
forced to endure. They deserve better.
Deb Kunkle, Fall River
contact card- Oh My .... the best share.... I am going 2 write this in black ink on a red card and put in my wallet... AND FAMILY CONTACT
For all my breast cancer and cancer surviving friends - love u.... thank u for your bravery, courage and humanity
Canada » Provinces » Nova Scotia » Cemeteries & Funeral Homes
80 Links
We are indebted to Wayne W. Walker
for making a copy of his Abstracts from the Court of Probate Records for
Annapolis County, Nova Scotia available to us on the Internet. The Abstracts
are available for download as a ZIP (compressed) file. The text is in ASCII
text format which can be read by all word processors.
To honour the heritage of the
communities through the restoration and preservation of the final resting place
of our ancestors.
Canadian Funeral Guide &
Comprehensive Funeral Homes Directory.
The mission of this project is to
capture digital images of headstones of our ancestors. As decades pass -- many
stones are becoming harder, if not impossible, to read the inscriptions they
originally contained. This Headstone Photo Project is a privately sponsored,
non-profit, educational site. Success of the project depends completely upon
the activities of many volunteers and other individuals who contribute
photographs to the archive. You may submit the transcription from a headstone
without having a photo. You can also submit the photo of a cemetery
entrance/sign.
Excerpted from The Stone Book of
Pictou County by Donald Nicholson. The statistics are listed by cemetery,
including the oldest birth year, oldest death year, oldest age at death.
Transcriptions from the Hants
County Nova Scotia GenWeb project.
Meisner, Barrett, Caudle,
Williams, Bonhomme, Boutilier, Noonan, Crandall, Begin, Taillon, Lalonde and
Contant families of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec. This site
also contains comprehensive Nova Scotia Census Records for all the available
years, as well as Church Parish Birth/Marriage/Death Records and Cemetery
Records.
·
Nova Scotia, Canada. Cemetery
transcriptions, photographs of cemetery gateposts and many obituaries.
Upper Musquodoboit, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada.
Serving the families of Nova
Scotia for over 50 years.
LeBlanc offers monument levelling
& straightening service in Moncton, St. John New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
Halifax & Prince Edward Island in Canada.
This is the oldest and the largest
free access national Canadian site which collects and displays photos of grave
markers in cemeteries. Currently there are almost 1,000 completely photographed
cemeteries and 400,000 photos online.
A searchable fully-indexed
database of graveyards, cemeteries and burial grounds in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Includes maps and GPS coordinates. Emphasis on photographs of gravestones.
To date, this is the most
extensive list of (known) cemeteries in the county.
This web site is mainly about
cemeteries and churches of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. Each cemetery &
church will have a brief description, civic address if known, age of it and a
list of first and last names of people buried at each cemetery. Also pictures
of other towns/places of interest, churches and cemeteries in Nova Scotia that
I have been too. My own gardens will be featured, and some of the books I have
published on my families. My family genealogy and more headstone art will also
be added at a late date.
Tombstone transcriptions.
Kolbec, Cumberland County Nova
Scotia. A small family cemetery with surnames of RUSHTON, MILLER, ROSS, RODGERS
& PIPES.
Westchester Mountain, Cumerland
County, Nova Scotia. RUSHTON, WEATHERBEE, EAGLES, BARKER, JOHNSON, PATRIQUIN,
TEED, MORRELL, MCLEOD, MOORE.
·
------
Cemetery and Funeral Services Regulations
made under Section 28 of the
Cemetery and Funeral Services Act
R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 62
O.I.C. 84-156 (February 7, 1984),
N.S. Reg. 16/84
as amended to O.I.C. 2015-96
(March 31, 2015, effective June 1, 2015), N.S. Reg. 76/2015
1 No
person shall solicit another person to enter into an agreement respecting or
offer for sale to or sell to another person
(a) a
prearranged funeral plan;
(b) a
pre-need cemetery plan; or
(c) a
cemetery lot or the right to use a lot in a cemetery,
unless he is licensed as a seller or as a salesperson
of a licensed seller.
2 No
person shall be licensed as a seller unless
(a) he
provides a copy of the last audited financial statement;
(b) he
provides a list of persons employed or engaged by the seller;
(c) he
provides a copy of all purchase agreements in use or intended to be used;
(d) he
provides a bond in the amount specified in Regulation [Section] 12;
(e) he
completes the application form prescribed by the Registrar;
(f) he
pays the annual fee of $66.00;
Clause 2(f) amended: O.I.C. 2015-96, N.S. Reg. 76/2015.
(g) in
the case of a seller of cemetery lots or the right to use a lot in the
cemetery, he has submitted an irrevocable trust agreement for the care fund and
it has been approved by the Registrar;
(h) in
the case of a seller of prearranged funeral plans or pre-need cemetery plans,
he has submitted a copy of the agreement made between the applicant and a
chartered bank, loan or trust company respecting trust accounts; and
(i) in
the case of a seller who is not a funeral home operator or a cemetery owner, he
has submitted a copy of an agreement between the applicant and a funeral home
operator or a cemetery owner to provide the goods and services.
3 No
person shall be licensed as a salesperson unless
(a) he
is an individual, 19 years of age or older;
(b) he
is a salesperson of a licensed seller;
(c) he
completes the application form prescribed by the Registrar;
(d) he
pays the annual fee of $33.00 and
Clause 3(d) amended: O.I.C. 2015-96, N.S. Reg. 76/2015.
(e) if
required by the Registrar, he provides a bond.
4 No
seller’s licence shall be renewed unless the seller
(a) files
a report, prescribed by the Registrar, within three months immediately
following the end of the seller’s fiscal year, which has been completed by a
public accountant licensed under the Public Accountants Act and signed by the
seller, that states that the seller has kept, in connection with the sale of
prearranged funeral plans, pre-need cemetery plans, or cemetery lots or the
rights to use a cemetery lot, the records and accounts required by the Act and
regulations in respect of money or other valuable property received by him in
trust from purchasers for and during the fiscal year;
(b) completes
the renewal application prescribed by the Registrar;
(c) updates
all information filed with the original application;
(d) pays
the annual fee; and
(e) if
required by the Registrar, provides additional information.
5 No
salesperson’s licence shall be renewed unless the salesperson
(a) completes
the renewal application prescribed by the Registrar;
(b) updates
all information filed with the original application;
(c) pays
the annual fee; and
(d) if
required by the Registrar, provides a bond.
6 The
Registrar may require at any time any further information or material to be
submitted by any applicant or any licensed person within a specified time
limit, and may require if he so desires verification by affidavit or otherwise
of any information or material then or previously submitted.
7 The
Registrar may refuse to licence or renew a licence where a person
(a) has
violated any provision of the Act or regulations;
(b) has
made a material misstatement in the application for his licence or in any of
the information or material submitted by him to the Registrar;
(c) has
been guilty of misrepresentation, fraud, or dishonesty; or
(d) has
demonstrated that it is not in the public interest that he be licensed.
8 (1) Every seller and salesperson
shall, in all verbal or written communication regarding the sale of prearranged
funeral plans, pre-need cemetery plans and cemetery lots or the right to use a
lot, use the name under which he obtained his licence and identify his licence
by the number it bears.
(2) A
salesperson shall in addition give the name of the seller by whom he is
engaged.
9 (1) The transfer of the licence
from one person to another is prohibited.
(2) The
termination of the employment of a salesman with a licensed seller shall
operate as a cancellation of the licence of such salesman until, upon receipt
of application from such salesman, the Registrar reissues the licence.
10 (1) The Registrar shall require
an applicant for a licence or a renewal of a licence to provide a bond before
the licence will be issued or renewed.
(2) The
Registrar may at any time require to be delivered a bond or such other
collateral security as he deems necessary.
11 (1) Any bond required to be
given under the Act or by the Registrar shall be in one of the following forms:
(a) surety
bond;
(b) bond
of guarantor; or
(c) such
other form as the Registrar may from time to time specify.
(2) For
purposes of these regulations
(a) a
“surety bond” means a bond of a guarantee company which is a three party
undertaking naming a principal, obligee and surety under which the surety
agrees to indemnify the obligee against loss arising from the failure of the
principal to comply with the provisions of the Act or the regulations made
pursuant thereto;
(b) a
“bond of a guarantor” means an instrument whereby a principal (person seeking
bond coverage) and a guarantor (another person) jointly pledge collateral
security of a predetermined amount to the Province of Nova Scotia which may be
forfeited in the event of any violation by the principal of the provisions of
the Act or the regulations made pursuant thereto;
(c) “collateral
security” means negotiable securities such as stocks, bonds and debentures that
have a market value and can be sold providing they are properly endorsed and
are in bearer form.
(3) A
bond of a guarantor shall in all instances be accompanied by collateral
security acceptable to the Registrar in an amount as prescribed by the
Registrar.
(4) The
collateral security referred to in subsection (3) shall be deposited with the
Minister of Finance and Treasury Board and maintained at a market value of not
less than that prescribed.
[Note: The reference to the Minister of Finance has been updated in
accordance with Order in Council 2013-348 under the Public Service Act,
R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 376, effective October 22, 2013.]
12 The
amount of the bond required to be given by an applicant shall be as follows:
(a) in
the case of a seller of prearranged funeral plans or pre-need cemetery plans
(i) where
there are 1 to 30 plans..............................................$5000.00
(ii) where
there are 31 to 60
plans.........................................$10 000.00
Subclause 12(a)(ii) amended: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(iii) where
there are 61 to 90 plans .......................................$15 000.00
(iv) where
there are more than 90 plans.................................$20 000.00
(b) in
all other cases, the amount of the bond shall be at the discretion of the
Registrar.
13 (1) Any bond delivered under
this Act shall be forfeited upon the demand of the Registrar where
(a) the
person in respect of whose conduct the bond is conditioned or any
representative, agent or salesman of that person has been convicted of
(i) an
offence under this Act or any regulation, or
(ii) an
offence involving fraud, theft or conspiracy to commit an offence involving
fraud; or theft under the Criminal Code (Canada);
or
(b) judgment
in respect of a claim arising out of a prearranged funeral plan, a pre-need
cemetery plan or the sale of lot in a cemetery or the right to use a lot has
been given against the person in respect of whose conduct the bond is
conditioned or against any representative, agent or salesman of that person; or
(c) the
person in respect of whose conduct the bond is conditioned commits an act of
bankruptcy, whether or not proceedings have been taken under the Bankruptcy Act
(Canada); or
(d) a
decision has been rendered by the Registrar in writing stating in effect that
after consideration and investigation of a complaint, he is satisfied that the
person in respect of whose conduct the bond is conditioned or any
representative, agent or salesman of that person
(i) has
violated any provision of this Act or has failed to comply with any of the
terms, conditions or restrictions to which his licence is subject or is in
breach of contract, and
(ii) has
departed from Nova Scotia or been out of Nova Scotia, remains out of Nova
Scotia or departs from his normal place of abode or otherwise absents himself
or in the case of a corporation, the name thereof has been struck off the
register of companies,
and such conviction or judgment, order or decision
has become final by reason of lapse of time or having been confirmed by the
highest court to which any appeal may be taken.
(2) Notwithstanding
the fact that Her Majesty the Queen in the right of Her Province of Nova Scotia
has not suffered any loss or damages, every bond delivered to the Registrar
under this Act or regulations shall be construed as being a penal bond and
where any such bond is forfeited pursuant to this Act the amount due and owing
as a debt to Her Majesty the Queen in the right of Her Province of Nova Scotia
by the person bound thereby shall be determined as if Her Majesty suffered such
loss or damages as would entitle Her Majesty to be entitled to the maximum
amount of the liability prescribed by the bond.
(3) For
the purpose of every act and omission occurring during the period of licensing,
every bond shall continue in force for a period of two years after the licence
or renewal thereof to which it relates lapses or is cancelled.
(4) Notwithstanding
any other provision of this Act, the total liability of the insurer under the
bond shall not at any time exceed the face value of the bond.
(5) Where
new bonds have been issued from time to time by the same guarantor party on the
expiry of previous bonds all such bonds shall be deemed to be one continuing
bond and the maximum amount for which the guarantor party shall be liable shall
be the face value of the bond last issued upon expiry of a previous bond.
(6) Where
a bond secured by the deposit of collateral security with the Registrar is forfeited
under this Act, the Registrar may sell the collateral security at the current
market price.
14 Where
a bond has been forfeited and the Registrar has not received notice in writing
of any claim against the proceeds of the bond or such part as remains in his
hands within two years of the forfeiture, the Registrar may pay the proceeds of
the bond or the collateral security or any part remaining, to any person who
made a payment under the bond or who deposited the collateral security, after
first deducting the amount of any expenses that have been incurred in
connection with any investigation or otherwise relating to the direct seller or
salesman in respect of whose conduct the bond was conditioned.
Trust accounts
15 (1) Every seller of prearranged
funeral plans and pre-need cemetery plans shall maintain a separate account
designated as a trust account in a chartered bank, loan or trust company in the
Province, for each individual who has purchased a prearranged funeral plan or
pre-need cemetery plan, in which shall be deposited all money received from the
sale of the prearranged funeral plan or the pre-need cemetery plan together
with any income earned thereon and he shall at all times keep such money
separate and apart from money belonging to himself, and shall disburse such
monies only in accordance with Section 15 of the Act.
(2) Every
seller shall establish a trust ledger for their trust account and each month
shall prepare and maintain in their trust ledger full details of money
deposited and money disbursed for each pre-arranged funeral plan or pre-need
cemetery plan, including all of the following:
(a) the
name of the purchaser;
(b) the
purchase agreement number of the plan;
(c) the
number of beneficiaries covered by the plan;
(d) for
money that is deposited,
(i)
the amount deposited,
(ii) the
date it is deposited,
(iii) the
names of all beneficiaries for whom it is deposited, and
(iv) whether
the amount deposited is a deposit in full, an initial installment
[instalment] deposit, an installment [instalment] deposit or final deposit;
(e) for
money, including interest, that is disbursed,
(i) the
amount disbursed,
(ii) the
date it is disbursed,
(iii) to
whom it is disbursed,
(iv) the
names of all beneficiaries for whom it is disbursed, and
(v) whether
the disbursement means that the contract is fulfilled, partially fulfilled or
cancelled;
(f) the
total amount of interest accrued during that month;
(g) the
opening and closing trust account balances for the month.
Subsection 15(2) replaced: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
Subsection 15(3) repealed: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(4) Each
month, every seller shall prepare and maintain a monthly bank reconciliation or
reconciliations which correctly reconcile the statement or passbook figures of
the depository with the figures shown as on deposit in trust according to the
seller’s books of account.
Subsection 15(4) amended: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(5) Every
seller shall keep all of the following for all of their trust accounts:
(a) duplicate
deposit slips;
(b) cancelled
cheques;
(c) bank
statements or pass books;
(d) duplicates
of proofs of deposits required by subsection (7);
(e) duplicates
of semi-annual statements required by subsection (9);
(f) a
copy of all pre-arranged funeral plan and pre-need cemetery plan purchase
agreements;
(g) trust
ledgers.
Subsection 15(5) replaced: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(6) Every
seller shall deposit all monies received from the sale of prearranged funeral
plans or pre-need cemetery plans within one week of receipt of such monies.
(7) Every seller shall ensure
that a purchaser of a pre-arranged funeral plan or pre-need cemetery plan
receives proof of deposit of the purchaser’s payment to a trust account by the
following deadlines:
(a) for
a plan that is not being purchased by instalment payments, no later than 21
days after the date the seller receives payment for the plan from the
purchaser;
(b) for
a plan that is being purchased by instalment payments, no later than 21 days
after the date the seller receives the initial instalment payment from the
purchaser.
Subsection 15(7) added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(8) Proof of deposit is a record
verified by the financial institution that states all of the following:
(a) the
name of the purchaser;
(b) the
amount of the deposit;
(c) the
date of the deposit.
Subsection 15(8) added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
(9) If a pre-arranged funeral
plan or pre-need cemetery plan is purchased by instalment payments, the seller
shall also give the purchaser proof of deposit at least semi-annually
confirming deposit of all other payments received from the purchaser.
Subsection 15(9) added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007; O.I.C.
2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
16 Pursuant
to [sub]section 15(2) of the Act, the percentage which the seller of a
prearranged funeral plan or a pre-need cemetery plan may retain on account of
administrative expenses shall not exceed 10%.
Purchase agreements
16A(1) A seller shall use sequentially numbered
purchase agreements for pre-arranged funeral plan purchase agreements and
pre-need cemetery plan purchase agreements.
(2) A purchase agreement shall
contain the following words directly above the purchaser’s signature, in bold
type and no smaller than 10 pts in size:
By law, the seller of pre-arranged funeral plans or
pre-need cemetery plans must deposit all the money you pay them, less any
administrative expenses agreed to in this purchase agreement, into a trust
account at a financial institution. The seller must also ensure you are given
written proof of the deposit no later than 21 days after they receive the money
from you. If the seller has agreed to allow you to pay by instalments, the
seller must give you written proof of deposit of the first payment no later
than 21 days after they receive the payment, and must give you written proof at
least semi-annually confirming deposit of your other payments. If you do not
receive the required proof of deposit, please contact the seller and, if the
matter continues to be unresolved, please contact the office of the Registrar
of Cemetery and Funeral Services (insert the current phone number for the
Registrar).
Subsection 16A(2) replaced: O.I.C. 2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
(3) A purchase agreement for a
pre-arranged funeral plan shall be titled “Purchase Agreement for Pre-Arranged
Funeral Plan” and shall not be used for any other purpose.
Subsection 16A(3) added: O.I.C. 2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
(4) A purchase agreement for a
pre-need cemetery plan shall be titled “Purchase Agreement for Pre-Need
Cemetery Plan” and shall not be used for any other purpose.
Subsection 16A(4) added: O.I.C. 2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
(5) A
seller shall ensure that a purchase agreement for a pre-need cemetery plan or
pre-arranged funeral plan contains all of the following:
(a) the
name and address of the seller;
(b) the
name and address of the purchaser;
(c) the
name of the beneficiary of the plan if different from the purchaser;
(d) a
description or itemization of the services and items included in the purchase
agreement and the price;
(e) the
amount of the payment received by the seller specifying whether the balance is
paid in full or is to be paid by instalment and, if to be paid by instalment,
the agreed-upon schedule of instalment payments;
(f) the
purchaser’s signature acknowledging receipt of a copy of the contract.
Subsection 16A(5) added: O.I.C. 2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
(6) A seller shall retain copies
of all of the following for at least 5 years after the date the agreement is
fulfilled or cancelled:
(a) all
fulfilled and cancelled purchase agreements for funeral and cemetery goods and
services;
(b) death
certificates in the case of pre-arranged funeral plans and burial certificates
in the case of pre-need cemetery plans;
(c) cancellation
and refund requests;
(d) cancelled
cheques issued to purchasers for refunds or cancellations.
Subsection 16A(3) renumbered (6): O.I.C. 2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
Section 16A added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
Records of merchandise purchased under purchase agreement
16B A
seller who purchases funeral or cemetery merchandise before it is used in
accordance with a pre-arranged funeral plan or pre-need cemetery plan and
removes funds from trust to purchase the merchandise shall keep the following
records for the merchandise:
(a) an
inventory of the merchandise purchased that
(i) assigns
each item to the purchase agreement for which it was purchased, and
(ii) includes
the following information for each item:
(A) the
date of purchase,
(B) the
names of all beneficiaries for whom the item is purchased,
(C) the
purchase agreement number of the plan to which the item is
asigned,
(D) a
description of the item purchased sufficient to identify the item,
(E) the
address where the item is stored;
(b) in
the file for the purchase agreement, all of the following:
(i) the
purchase invoice for each item,
(ii) any
request for release of funds from trust for an item.
Section 16B added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007; amended: O.I.C.
2008-120, N.S. Reg. 111/2008.
Report on records and accounts
16CThe
report on records and accounts required by clause 4(a) shall confirm all of the
following:
(a) that
money received for pre-arranged funeral plans and pre-need cemetery plans has
been disbursed only in accordance with the Act and these regulations;
(b) that
the seller has maintained the required monthly trust ledgers in accordance with
subsection 15(2);
(c) that
the seller has reconciled the trust ledger to the bank records on a monthly
basis in accordance with subsection 15(4);
(d) that
the seller has retained the documents required under subsection 15(5);
(e) that
deposits of money received from the sale of pre-arranged funeral plans and
pre-need cemetery plans have been made to the appropriate trust accounts no
later than one week after the money was received in accordance with subsection
15(6);
(f) that
purchasers have been provided with proof of deposit to the trust account no
later than 21 days after the seller received the money in accordance with
subsection 15(7);
(g) that
purchasers who are paying by installment [instalment] payments have been
provided with their semi-annual statements in accordance with subsection 15(9);
(h) if
the seller is required to maintain an inventory of merchandise, that the seller
has maintained records showing assignment of the merchandise to individual
purchase agreements in accordance with Section 16B;
(i) the
amount of money held in trust;
(j) for
a cemetery that made deposits to the care fund and made withdrawals from the
income of the care fund, that it did so in accordance with Section 24 of the
Act and Sections 28 to 33 of these regulations;
(k) that
the seller has retained the documents required under subsection 16A(3);
(l) any
information required by the Registrar about the seller’s records and accounts.
Section 16C added: O.I.C. 2007-533, N.S. Reg. 401/2007.
Cemeteries
17 (1) The plan of a cemetery
required to be filed by Section 21 of the Act shall be drawn to scale and shall
show the location and dimensions of every lot, walk, fence, road, watercourse
and building in the cemetery and the adjoining roads and compass bearings.
(2) Every
plan of
(a) a
cemetery that contains three or more acres of land or of an extension to an
existing cemetery that contains three or more acres of land; and
(b) a
cemetery operated for gain or profit or an extension thereof,
shall be prepared by and the land shall be surveyed
and subdivided by a Nova Scotia land surveyor or a professional engineer.
(3) No
lot in a cemetery, nor the right to use a lot in a cemetery shall be sold
unless the lot being sold is shown on the plan and the plan has been accepted
for filing by the Registrar.
(4) Subsection
(3) shall not come into effect until June 1, 1984.
18 No
operator shall charge an excessive amount for a disinterment.
19 An
operator shall not refuse to install or refuse to permit the installation of
any cemetery supplies if the material and erection comply with the regulations
of the cemetery.
20 Every
operator shall file with the Minister a list of all by-laws, rules and
regulations made by him and any amendments thereof, and no by-law, rule or
regulation shall have any force or effect unless approved by the Minister.
21 The
Minister may revoke any approval given by him under Section 20.
22 Every
operator shall keep a register in which shall be entered
(a) the
name and address of every owner of a lot; and
(b) every
transfer of the ownership of a lot.
23 Every
operator shall keep a separate register for public inspection in which shall be
entered
(a) the
name of every deceased person whose body is interred in the cemetery;
(b) the
location of every body interred in the cemetery, mausoleum or columbarium;
(c) the
date of the burial of every such body; and
(d) the
particulars of every disinterment or removal of a body.
24 (1) Every transfer of the
ownership of a lot after the original sale shall be made by the registered
owner or his legal representative giving to the operator of the cemetery a written
notice containing a description of the lot, the date of the sale and the name
and address of the transferee.
(2) Upon
receipt of the notice and payment of a fee not exceeding $2, the operator shall
forthwith enter in the register kept in accordance with Section 22, the date of
the transfer and the name and address of the transferee.
25 No
change in the ownership of a cemetery shall become effective until written
notice thereof has been given to the Registrar and the change has been approved
by the Minister.
26 Every
operator shall at the request of the Registrar furnish such information as the
Minister requires in respect of the cemetery and the care and management
thereof.
27 (1) Whenever it is desirable to
discontinue the operation of a cemetery, in which human bodies or human remains
have been buried, the operator shall take adequate steps to ensure that the
cemetery will be maintained in a decent manner which will not create an offence
or public health nuisance.
(2) In
the case of a cemetery which was operated by an organization other than a
municipality, the organization which operated the cemetery may enter into a
contract or agreement with the municipality in which the cemetery is located or
with a municipality served by the cemetery, such that the municipality
contracts or agrees to provide adequate maintenance for the cemetery. In such
case, the responsibility of the municipality will be the same as though the
cemetery were municipally operated.
27AIf
the circumstances described in subsection 27C(4) of the Act exist, requiring
further arrangement for carrying on the operation of a cemetery, the Minister
may re-appoint an administrator, or appoint a different administrator, for
subsequent terms of up to 1 year.
Section 27A added: O.I.C. 2007-197, N.S. Reg. 206/2007.
Care fund
28 Every
operator shall deduct from the money received from the sale of a cemetery lot
or the right to use a lot in a cemetery, and set aside in the care fund at
least fifteen percent of the money received, or fifty dollars, whichever is the
larger amount.
29 (1) The care fund shall be held
and administered by a trustee approved by the Registrar in accordance with an
irrevocable trust agreement approved by the Registrar.
(2) An
operator shall submit to the Registrar for approval a copy of the trust
agreement which the operator intends to use and the Registrar shall advise the
operator within 30 days whether the trust agreement has been approved or not
approved.
30 Every
trustee shall
(a) receive
money deposited by the operator and invest funds in the trust in securities as
directed by the terms of the trust agreement or, in default of a direction, in
securities in which it may by law as a trustee invest trust money;
(b) maintain
a record of money received for deposit to the care fund, securities bought and
sold, and income earned on the investments;
(c) after
deducting the amount allowed under Section 32 or 33, advise the operator of the
net income for the year available for the care and maintenance of the cemetery;
and
(d) except
as otherwise provided in Section 31, from the net income available pay the
operator up to the amount he has spent for care and maintenance during that
year, as evidenced by a certificate from the operator.
31 (1) Where the operator in any
year
(a) does
not withdraw any or all of the income to which he is entitled; or
(b) the
income available is in excess of the amount covered by the certificate for the
particular year,
the trustee shall hold and reinvest the balance
which, together with the income it earns, shall be available to the operator
under the same conditions as in subsection [clause] (d) of Section 30
for care and maintenance in future years when required.
(2) Nothing
shall prevent the operator from depositing all or part of the balance and the
income earned to the principal of the care fund.
(3) The
trustee shall not be held liable for any payments to the operator from the
income of the care fund in compliance with a certificate for care and
maintenance performed.
(4) Any
amendment to the trust agreement, including a change in the trustee of the care
fund, shall not take effect until the amendment is filed with and approved by
the Registrar.
32 Subject
to Section 33, an authorized trustee may, as remuneration for his services, in
each year deduct and retain, from the income received, other than capital
income, in that year on behalf of an owner, a portion thereof not exceeding an
amount equal to five percent of that income of the fund.
33 Notwithstanding
Section 32, in any year that the remuneration to which an authorized trustee is
entitled under a contract with an owner in force on the coming into force of this
[these] regulation[s], is less than the remuneration that that authorized
trustee may deduct under Section 32, the authorized trustee shall deduct only
the amount to which he is entitled under the contract.
Advertising
34 No
seller or salesperson shall
(a) include
inaccurate or deceptive claims or statements, either direct or implied, with
respect to price, worth, value or availability of funeral merchandise or
services or cemetery goods or services in any advertisement;
(b) advertise
in a format which has the appearance of a public service advertisement with the
effect of concealing its commercial intent;
(c) advertise
in such a manner as to exploit human misery or to play upon fears which would
encourage the consumer to purchase funeral merchandise or services or cemetery
goods or services;
(d) advertise
in a tasteless manner; or
(e) make
reference to price in an advertisement unless the advertisement includes a
detailed description of the funeral merchandise or services or the cemetery
goods or services.
35 (1) The operator of any cemetery
not formed for the purpose of gain or profit and containing less than 1500 lots
shall be exempt from the provisions of the Act.
(2) The
operator of any cemetery not formed for the purpose of gain or profit and
containing 1500 lots or more shall be exempt from the provisions of Sections 7
and 8 of the Act and subsection (1) of Section 21 of the Act.
Section 35 added: O.I.C. 86-158, N.S. Reg. 26/86.
36 No
seller or salesperson shall
(a) solicit
the purchase of a prearranged funeral plan, a pre-need cemetery plan or a
cemetery lot or the right to use a lot in a cemetery by means of a telephone;
and
(b) solicit
the purchase of a prearranged funeral plan, a pre-need cemetery plan or a
cemetery lot or the right to use a lot in a cemetery by means of selling or
offering for sale goods or services from door to door.
Section 36 added: O.I.C. 90-176, N.S. Reg. 44/90.
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Canadian Funerals
Funerals 101
Preservation of Cemeteries
Cemetery Vandalism
Traditional Burial
Columbarium
Home Owners Insurance and Grave Markers
Burial Benefits for Veterans
Canadian Funerals
Shopping Tips for Memorials
Cremation Scams
Funeral Scams
Preservation of Cemeteries
Cemetery Vandalism
Traditional Burial
Columbarium
Home Owners Insurance and Grave Markers
Burial Benefits for Veterans
Canadian Funerals
Shopping Tips for Memorials
Cremation Scams
Funeral Scams
Rules and
Traditions Similar to U.S.
At first glance, it may seem that Canadian Funerals
offer less consumer protection than funerals in the United States. Consumers in
the United States, after all, have come to expect their federal government to
play a heavy role in assuring that funeral homes and cemeteries are operated
fairly, and no such role exists for the Canadian national government.
But first impressions can be deceiving.
In fact, consumers of Canadian funerals have a
variety of protections that are very similar to those offered by the United
States’ Federal Trade Commission’s funeral rule, enacted by Congress to help
consumers stand up to monopoly-like business practices that have been
historically very common in the memorial industry. Canadian Funerals may not be
regulated by the national government, but most local and provincial governments
take consumer protection very seriously. This means, in fact, the typical
experience consumers face in Canadian cemeteries and funeral homes is very
similar to what United States consumers can expect. Most reputable cemeteries
and funeral homes in Canada adhere to industry standards for business practices
that are almost exactly like the United States laws.
Below are a few highlights of common funeral rules
enforced by local Canadian governments or Canadian funeral industry groups. In
every case, these rules are the same as those enforced by the United States
Federal Trade Commission.
- Funeral homes and cemeteries may not require that bodies be embalmed unless there is a specific local law that requires it. And, in no case, may funeral homes or cemeteries conduct an embalming without a customer’s authorization.
- Canadian funeral homes and cemeteries must present customers with an itemized price list of services and products available. They may not attempt to keep customers from buying products elsewhere. (In other words, a customer may purchase a headstone or casket from any dealer and have it delivered for use at any funeral home or cemetery.)
- Cemeteries may, in most cases, require that customers buy a concrete grave vault or other grave reinforcement.
- Cemeteries and funeral homes may not misrepresent the preservation ability of caskets.
These rules, and others, give Canadian consumers the
legal power to stand up to monopolistic tactics that had been the hallmark of
the North American Funeral Industry for much of the 20th Century (and probably
before). While it is debatable whether a federal or local government best
enforces these rules, the fact remains: consumer-friendly funeral business
practices are now the law of the land in both the United States and Canada.
There are some companies in the USA which ship for free to Canada, such as urns and headstones.
Canadian consumers looking for information about the
specific rules in their area should contact regulators in either their local or
provincial government. They can also get help from the numerous industry associations
that serve the entire nation. These associations are typically eager to enforce
rules that encourage competition in the funeral industry. The industry
understand that, if it doesn’t police itself, the national government will
likely take charge as Congress did in the U.S.
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Funerals 101
"Things you always wanted to know but never asked"
From a consumer’s perspective, any course called “Funerals 101” should begin with the following idea that sales people in the industry will not always acknowledge: there is no such thing as a “traditional” funeral. Funerals can be as elaborate or as minimalistic as one desires, and that means (despite common claims on life insurance commercials) a funeral does not have to cost $5,000 - $10,000. A simple - but-fitting funeral can cost $1,000 or even less. So, our little Funerals 101 course will focus on getting what you want in a funeral, not on what a sales person wants you to want.The first, and most important, lesson to learn in Funerals 101 is planning. This is the key to saving thousands by not falling prey to high-pressure (car salesman-like) sales tactics that are unfortunately very common in the funeral industry. (These tactics are especially effective in the funeral industry because even the most aggressive negotiator can be forgiven for backing down considerably while he or his family is in the midst of emotional devastation. Other industries in which high-pressure sales are the norm simply do not have this amazing advantage over customers.)
Funeral planning involves serious discussion, well in advance of when it’s needed, of what a person’s desires are for a funeral. Each person in a family owes it to his relatives to leave clear instructions as to how he or she would like to be memorialized, consumer experts say. This is important from a relationship perspective as well as from a Funerals 101 perspective. It is healthy, and even therapeutic, to talk honestly about this topic among loved ones. And, of course, being able to present a funeral director with a precise list of well-considered desires, can lead to dramatically reduced prices for a funeral. Only the most brazen of funeral sales people would dare to suggest expensive upgrades to a list of funeral services and products that has been carefully pre-selected by the deceased. Armed with such a list, a family member can simply visit a funeral home once at the time of need and insist that the deceased’s wishes be carried out as prescribed.
For best results, the planning must be very thorough. To prepare a helpful list, a good Funerals 101 student will devote a considerable amount of time to research on the types of funeral products and services available and what they cost. He or she will also establish a budget and make secure arrangements for the funeral to be paid. Paying in advance is also a consideration, but consumers should be warned that a goal of many funeral sales people is to make additional sales of “optional” services at the time of need, and these services often can quickly add up to double the amount of the original payment. Also, paying in advance carries with it a number of self-evident risks from which consumers are not always protected despite heavy government regulation in most areas of the United States.
For best results, this Funerals 101 course recommends that everyone simply plan their own funeral or memorial service very specifically, make sure plenty of friends and relatives understand the plans well, and then keep a sufficient amount of “funeral money” in an interest-bearing savings account so that paying for the plans will not be a burden to friends and family. Life-Insurance proceeds are probably best used to cover living expenses of a spouse or children who had long been dependent financially on the deceased. Whatever you do, this Funeral 101 warns adamantly, against letting a funeral director know that a life insurance proceeds are due. In the high-pressure world of funeral sales, such information will definitely lead to an overpriced, unnecessarily elaborate funeral.
For most people in today’s world, a simple, inexpensive funeral is to be desired. The most important thing to remember in Funerals 101 is to simply not let anyone talk you out of something like that.
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Traditional Burial
Dozens of Forms Make for Many Traditions
To describe a “traditional burial” is a bit difficult. Burials today can be as varied as the personalities of the deceased. Some people are buried at sea; some, today, are buried “naturally” – in other words without the use of a casket – and still others are never buried at all. They are cremated and their ashes scattered over some special place.So, a “traditional burial” is somewhat of a misnomer today – especially with the rise of cremation and cremation-related keepsakes and products such as cremation jewelry, urn vaults and biodegradable urns. But, as varied as traditional burials may be today, most traditional burials are still accompanied by a memorial ceremony that follows some standard funeral traditions.
A typical ceremony for a traditional burial is a celebration of the deceased’s life. It usually includes a brief sermon performed by a pastor who has played an important part of the deceased’s person’s life. There may be the typical funeral service accessories at this service, such as a memorial picture frame with the protrait of the deceased, memorial books for friends and family to sign in, And, in most traditional burial ceremonies, that sermon is followed by a few remarks – known as a eulogy – from special friends and relatives. The traditional burial also includes, of course, performances of some of the most beloved music (and possibly poetry) enjoyed by the deceased.
All traditional burial ceremonies are intended to be a celebration of a person’s life, and the intent is usually for those in attendance to leave the ceremony feeling revived, refreshed and hopeful. There is usually many references made to the deceased “being an a better place today” in other words heaven.
Traditional burial ceremonies typically take place over the course of at least two days and have three distinct stages. First there is the “viewing” (also called a “wake” in some religions such as the Catholic faith). In this portion of the burial ceremony, the deceased’s body is on display for public viewing for several hours. Friends and family members approach the coffin one-by-one and pay their final, private respects.
After the viewing comes the “service,” the aforementioned ceremony in which a pastor, friends and family, and musicians stage a public celebration of the loved one’s life. This portion of the traditional burial ceremony is typically held at a church or some other large, public place, and hundreds or even thousands of people often attend.
Finally, there is the “internment,” the portion of the burial ceremony in which “pallbearers” transport the deceased from the location of the service to the final resting place. During this portion of the traditional burial ceremony, a pastor typically gives another set of remarks, and the pallbearers offer their respects to the deceased’s family just before cemetery staff members lower the casket into the ground.
While the forms of “burial” differ greatly, most people still are offered some sort of traditional burial ceremony that closely follows the above description. Even those who are to be cremated are still often given a viewing and a service before the cremation takes place, and then a special ceremony similar to an internment is conducted at a cemetery near the spot in which the ashes are to be buried or in which a permanent memorial is to be place.
Funeral and Burial Sites, Rites and Rights in Multicultural
Ontario
This article explores the barriers ethnic communities
in Ontario face in practicing
religious and cultural rites with respect to their
dead. It examines challenges posed by
emerging communities with regards to locating funeral
homes and practicing burial
rites and their interconnectedness or lack thereof
with multicultural rights. It also
offers advice to help overcome barriers in practicing
funeral and burial rites.
Burial Act, CQLR c I-11
Former citation: RSQ, c I-11
Current version: in force since Aug 5, 2010
Link to the latest version:
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Stable link to this version:
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http://canlii.ca/t/kwnc
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Citation to this version:
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Burial Act, CQLR c I-11, <http://canlii.ca/t/kwnc>
retrieved on 2015-08-15
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Last updated from the Publications du Québec
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© Éditeur officiel du Québec
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R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 1; 1972, c.
42, s. 59; 1992,
c. 57, s. 591.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 2; 1992, c. 57, s. 591.
Place of burial.
3. No interment shall be made elsewhere than in a cemetery
lawfully established, except in cases otherwise provided for by law.
Incinerations and cremations shall
be carried out in accordance with the regulations made for that purpose by the
Government under section 69 of the Act respecting medical laboratories, organ and
tissue conservation and the disposal of human bodies (chapter
L-0.2).
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 3; 1972, c.
42, s. 60; 1983,
c. 41, s. 199; 1985,
c. 29, s. 16; 2001,
c. 60, s. 166; 2009,
c. 30, s. 58.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 4; 1972, c.
42, s. 61; 1992,
c. 57, s. 592.
Roman Catholic
authority.
5. The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority shall alone have
the right to appoint the place in the cemetery in which persons of such faith
shall be buried, and, if the deceased, according to the canon rules and laws,
in the judgment of the ordinary, may not be interred in ground consecrated by
the liturgical prayers of such religion, he shall receive civil burial in
ground reserved for that purpose and adjacent to the cemetery.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 6.
Depth of grave.
6. In cases not otherwise provided for, the coffin shall be
deposited in a grave and covered with at least 1 m of earth, but the
Minister of Health and Social Services may, in special cases, dispense with the
application of this section.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 7; 1970, c.
42, s. 17; 1985,
c. 23, s. 24; 1984,
c. 47, s. 213.
Burial in church.
7. (1) No interment shall take place in a church or chapel in use
for religious purposes, without a special authorization granted by the superior
ecclesiastical or diocesan authority.
Precautions.
(2) When such permission is granted, the body must be placed in a
coffin containing at least 2,50 kg of chloride of lime, or quick-lime, and
such coffin must be placed in a grave and covered with at least 1,25 m of
earth or enclosed in masonry at least 45 cm thick if in stone and at least
50 cm thick if in brick, both brick and stone being well covered with
cement.
(3) This section shall not affect the powers granted to any
local municipality by its charter.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 8; 1984, c. 47, s. 213; 1996, c. 2, s. 694.
Contagious
diseases.
8. In addition to what is or may be prescribed by the
regulations of the Government, respecting the bodies of persons dying of
contagious diseases, the body of no person who has died of asiatic cholera,
typhus, small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, scarlatina or glanders shall be
interred in a church or chapel or deposited in a public vault.
The body of any person dying of any
of the diseases enumerated in this section must be transferred directly from
the place of death to the cemetery.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 9.
Right of
ecclesiastical authority.
9. The local ecclesiastical or diocesan authority may, at any
time, prohibit the bringing of bodies into churches under their control,
whenever it deems that the bringing of bodies into the church may be
prejudicial to the public health.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 10.
Public vault.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 11.
Public vaults.
11. No body shall be deposited in a public vault before 1
November, and all bodies deposited therein must be interred before 1 May.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 12.
Burial in private
vaults.
(1) by depositing the coffin in a grave and covering it with
1 m of earth; or
(2) by enclosing the coffin in masonry at least 30 cm thick
if in stone, and at least 45 cm thick if in brick, both brick and stone
being well covered with cement; or
(3) by surrounding the coffin on all sides with a layer of cement
10 cm thick. For that purpose a casing must be built, so that the inside
measurements of the case will be 20 cm greater in length, width and height
than the coffin to be enclosed therein, the walls of the case to be of burnt
brick, cemented, and to be 10 cm thick. The bottom of the cases in the
lower range shall be made of cemented brick or concrete. The lower cases shall
serve as the bottom for the upper cases. The coffin shall be deposited in the
case so built on four stone blocks 10 cm high, so as to have a free space
of 10 cm on all faces, and such space shall be filled in with cement up to
the height of the walls in brick.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 13; 1984, c. 47, s. 213.
Opening coffins.
13. No coffin shall be opened from the time of the registration
of the death until the interment, except for the purposes of justice, or unless
permission has been given by the local ecclesiastical authorities or by the
mayor, or, in his absence, by a justice of the peace of the place, upon an
affidavit showing the necessity for so doing.
If it is the body of a person who
has died of any of the diseases mentioned in section 8, the opening of the coffin shall be allowed only for the
purposes of justice and on taking the precautions prescribed by the Minister of
Health and Social Services.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 14; 1970, c.
42, s. 17; 1985,
c. 23, s. 24.
Burials prohibited.
14. The superior ecclesiastical or diocesan authority may,
whenever deemed desirable in the interests of decency or of public health,
prohibit interments in the cemeteries, churches or chapels under its control.
The infringement of such prohibition
shall render any person taking part in such interment liable to the fine
imposed by section 21.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 15.
15. In this division the word: “churchwardens”
comprises every officer of a church or congregation having the management of
any cemetery, by whatever name he may be known.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 16.
Petition to
disinter. Order.
16. (1) On a petition, accompanied by affidavits attesting the truth
thereof, being presented to any judge of the Superior Court, in term or in
vacation, by any person praying for leave to disinter one or more bodies
interred in any church, chapel or cemetery, with a view to the erection, repair
or sale of a church, chapel or cemetery, or with a view to the reinterment of
such body or bodies in another part of the same church, chapel or cemetery, or
in another cemetery, or with a view to the reconstruction or repair of the tomb
or coffin in which a body has already been interred, and indicating, in the
case of a proposed removal of any body or bodies, the part of the same church,
chapel or cemetery in which it is proposed to deposit such body or bodies, the
judge may order or permit that the body or bodies be disinterred as prayed for.
Effect of order.
(2) The order granting the petition, sealed with the seal of the
Superior Court and signed by the clerk, shall be sufficient authority to the
person in possession or having the charge or custody of such church, chapel or
cemetery to allow the proposed disinterment.
Ecclesiastical authorization.
(3) Before obtaining the order or permission of the judge to
effect any such disinterment in any Roman Catholic church, chapel or cemetery
under this section, the petitioner must show that he has obtained permission
from the superior ecclesiastical authority of the diocese in which it is
situated.
Contagious diseases.
(4) In the case of the
disinterment of the body of any person who has died of any disease mentioned in
section 8, the petitioner must show that permission has been granted by
the Minister of Health and Social Services and the judge shall allow the
disinterment only subject to the precautions prescribed by the said Minister
for the protection of public health.
Permission of judge.
(5) No disinterment shall
take place in any church, chapel or cemetery without the permission of a judge
obtained as aforesaid.
(6) Every order or
permission of a judge authorizing the exhumation of a body must be served on
the Chief Coroner.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 17; 1970, c.
42, s. 17; 1983,
c. 41, s. 200; 1985,
c. 23, s. 24.
Transferring
bodies.
17. Whenever in any parish or mission the competent religious
authority decides to remove an old cemetery and to open a new one, any judge of
the Superior Court, in term or in vacation, on petition presented to him by the
parish priest or missionary and by the majority of the churchwardens of the
church or congregation to which such old cemetery belongs or to whose use it is
applied, may grant permission to cause all or any of the bodies buried in such
old cemetery to be removed to such new cemetery.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 18.
Register.
18. The parish priest, minister, missionary or churchwardens of
such parish or mission, as the case may be, shall cause a register to be kept
of all bodies removed from such old cemetery, showing, as far as may be, the
names of the persons whose bodies have been so removed, as well as the names of
those who applied for such removal, or showing that they were removed by order
of such priest, minister or missionary, and of the churchwardens of such church
or congregation.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 19.
Certification.
19. The register shall be certified by the priest, minister or
missionary of the church or congregation to which such old cemetery belongs.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 20.
Limitation.
20. No disinterment of more than one body at a time shall be
allowed between 1 June and 1 September of any year.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 21.
Offence and
penalty.
21. (1) Every person who contravenes, or aids in the commission of an
offence under any of sections 3 to 14 and 16 to 20 is liable to a fine of not more than $300.
(2) Every offence under any of sections 6, 10, 11, 12 and 14 shall further entail an additional fine of not more than $25 for
every day that such infringement shall last.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 22; 1974, c.
11, s. 2; 1990,
c. 4, s. 496.
Penal proceedings.
22. Penal proceedings may be instituted by the local municipality
in whose territory the offence has been committed.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 23; 1992, c. 61, s. 350; 1996, c. 2, s. 695.
Interpretation.
23. In the case of churches or cemeteries not belonging to Roman
Catholics, the expressions: “superior ecclesiastical or diocesan authority” or
“the local ecclesiastical authority” or “the competent religious authority” in sections 7, 9, 14, 16 and 17, mean the authorities, officers, trustees, administrators,
managers or cemetery companies having, by law or custom, the administration of
such churches or cemeteries; and the said sections shall be interpreted as if
they had been made for the case of such churches and cemeteries.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 24.
Application of Act.
24. This Act shall not apply to the measures prescribed by judicial
authority or officers of justice, either as regards interments or
disinterments, when it is necessary to secure or promote the ends of justice.
R. S. 1964, c. 310, s. 25.
1982, c. 21, s. 1; U. K., 1982, c. 11, Sch. B,
Part I, s. 33.
In accordance with section 17 of the Act respecting the consolidation of the statutes
(chapter R-3), chapter 310 of the Revised Statutes, 1964, in force on 31
December 1977, is repealed effective from the coming into force of chapter I-11
of the Revised Statutes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The following are answers to the most Frequently Asked
Questions regarding the policies, practices and administration of the Gate of
Heaven Cemetery.
Simply click on a specific question to view its answer.
Scroll down the page to read the full list of questions with answers. Links are
provided within the answers when further information is available in our Rules
and Regulations within our web site www.ccchalifax.com
For more information or further clarification about these
questions and answers, or any other questions please contact us at 902-865-6663
or through the website www.ccchalifax.com
Why
are cemeteries necessary?When selecting a cemetery, what should I look for?
Who can be buried in the cemetery?
How do I make pre arrangements?
Why should I pre arrange my cemetery needs?
How do I choose the right type of grave?
What are my choices for traditional burial?
What is a columbarium?
What is cremation?
Why do people select cremation?
Does cremation replace a funeral?
What can I do with the cremated remains?
If I'm going to be cremated, why would I want my remains interred at the cemetery? Why shouldn't I just have them scattered in the sea or in some other place of my choosing?
How much do graves cost?
When I buy a grave do I receive a deed just like when I purchase other types of real estate?
Why wasn't I informed about a policy change?
Can I sell my burial space on the open market?
How do I control who will be buried in my burial space?
What is a perpetual care fee?
What is an interment fee?
What is a burial vault?
What options are there for the interment of cremated remains?
Can I have my cremated remains interred in an existing family grave plot?
Why can't I decorate a grave or niche any way I want?
Can I obtain information on my family genealogy from the cemetery?
What should I do first when a death occurs?
Why are cemeteries necessary?
In our modern society, it is our responsibility to treat human remains (including cremated remains) with dignity and respect, and to place them on property dedicated for that purpose. Today's burial grounds, or cemeteries/memorial gardens, serve as a central location for survivors to visit, to reflect, to remember and to heal.Cemeteries also provide a link with history. Many people visit pioneer or veterans' cemeteries to remember, and be inspired by ancestors who developed our communities and served our country. [ back to top ]
When selecting a cemetery, what should I look for?
Most importantly, select a cemetery with well-maintained property, and a friendly, compassionate and knowledgeable staff. At Gate of Heaven Cemetery, we take great pride in our grounds and you'll find the qualities you're looking for in every member of our staff. We will be happy to discuss our wide range of affordable options at a time convenient to you. [ back to top ]Who can be buried in the cemetery?
The cemeteries are open to all. [ back to top ]How do I make pre arrangements?
To make your personalized arrangements, call us at 865-6663 or contact us through our website www.ccchalifax.com so that we may set up a convenient time to explain the various options available and take you for a personal tour. Affordable pre-need financing is available. [ back to top ]Why should I pre arrange my cemetery needs?
By pre arranging your burial, your wishes are made clear. Advance planning is the best way to avoid heavier financial burdens in the future. Decisions are made apart from the emotions and stress of a death. We will assist you and respect your preferences - personal, family, emotional, financial and spiritual. We will make a full, unhurried, in-depth disclosure of all costs, so you can make prudent and informed choices in an atmosphere free from the anguish and grief that accompanies a death. [ back to top ]How do I choose the right type of grave?
Because it is an important question, many things must be considered. What type of memorial do you prefer? A marker set flat on the ground? An upright monument? How many burials do you expect to take place? Are you arranging for yourself or your family? How much do you want to spend? Answers to these types of questions will assist you to make the right purchase. [ back to top ]What are my choices for traditional burial?
We offer single graves and lots composed of two or more graves for traditional burials. [ back to top ]What is a columbarium?
A columbarium is constructed of numerous small compartments (niches) designed to hold urns containing cremated remains. [ back to top ]What is cremation?
Cremation is a method for preparing the deceased for memorialization. The process has been practiced throughout human history and is considered an alternative to traditional earth burial. Scientifically speaking, it is a process of reducing a deceased human body to bone fragments using high heat and flame. [ back to top ]Why do people select cremation?
The reasons for choosing cremation are as varied and unique as the individuals selecting it. Some choose cremation based on their feelings toward environmental issues and land usage. For many, it is a choice that reflects the individual's philosophical or religious beliefs. Others choose cremation to simplify the experience and save money. [ back to top ]Does cremation replace a funeral?
Cremation does not replace a funeral; rather it allows for more choices when it comes to choosing a loved one's final resting place(s), selecting a permanent memorial, and bringing the bereaved together to pay tribute to the deceased. [ back to top ]What can I do with the cremated remains?
You have many choices. Cremated remains can be buried at one of our cemetery ground sites, or placed in a columbarium niche. Our staff will be happy to discuss placement options with you in more detail. [ back to top ]If I'm going to be cremated, why would I want my remains interred at the cemetery? Why shouldn't I just have them scattered in the sea or in some other place of my choosing?
As long as it is permitted by local regulations, your cremated remains can be scattered in a place that is meaningful to you. This can, however, present difficulties for your survivors. Some people may find it hard to simply pour the mortal remains of a loved one out onto the ground or into the sea. If you wish to be scattered somewhere, it is therefore important to discuss your wishes ahead of time with the person or persons who will actually have to do the scattering. Another difficulty with scattering can occur when the remains are disposed of in an anonymous, unmarked or public place. Access to the area may be restricted for some reason in the future, undeveloped land may be developed or any of a host of other conditions may arise that could make it difficult for your survivors to visit the site to remember you. Even if your cremated remains are scattered in your backyard, what happens if your survivors relocate sometime in the future? Once scattered, cremated remains cannot easily be collected back up. Having your remains interred in a cemetery ensures that future generations will have a place to go. To remember and be remembered are natural human needs. Throughout human history, memorialization of the dead has been a key component of almost every culture. Psychologists say that remembrance practices, from the funeral or memorial service to permanent memorialization serve an important emotional function for survivors by helping to bring closure and allowing the healing process to begin. Providing a permanent resting place for the deceased is a dignified treatment for a loved one's mortal remains, which fulfills the natural human desire for memorialization. [ back to top ]How much do graves cost?
Within the cemetery, grave prices can vary by the section in which the grave is located. For example, single section, double section and the number of interments permitted in a grave may also effect the price. [ back to top ]When I buy a grave do I receive a deed just like when I purchase other types of real estate?
When you purchase a grave you are in fact purchasing the right to designate who may be interred in the space, rather than purchasing the grave itself, which remains the property and responsibility of the cemetery. You will receive a copy of the Rules and Regulations for the cemetery. You also have a right to place a memorial on the grave site. [ back to top ]Why wasn't I informed about a policy change?
Our 150-year historical databases are not updated to reflect generations beyond the original owners of burial rights. Contacting all owners, heirs of burial rights and other interested parties is, therefore, not possible. We make significant effort to communicate policy changes. This web site - www.ccchalifax.com - is the source of accurate, complete and up-to-date information. [ back to top ]Can I sell my burial space on the open market?
No. The Gate of Heaven Cemetery does not recognize the sale of burial rights between private parties. However, burial rights may be transferred to another person, preferably a family member, by written notification to our business office. The Gate of Heaven Cemetery will purchase back vacant single and double grave sites at the owners original purchase price. [ back to top ]How do I control who will be buried in my burial space?
The owner has exclusive and permanent right of use through an Indenture. Beyond the owner's spouse, who has full control and the first right of burial, this right passes to direct blood heirs immediately after the death of the original owner. A married couple is considered a joint owner.Written permission of the heirs may be required for burial. Beyond children, it is often very difficult to establish control and permission. Therefore, we strongly encourage all owners of burial rights to complete a Burial Right Assignment Form to make official burial assignments prior to their death. This will prevent unnecessary stress at the time when permission is essential. The document can be easily amended if new circumstances arise. [ back to top ]
What is a perpetual care fee?
A portion of the purchase price of the grave is contributed to a perpetual care fund. Income from the perpetual care fund is used to provide regular care and maintenance at the cemetery. Regular care and maintenance activities can include: cutting grass, regrading of graves, planting and caring for trees, roads, drainage, etc. [ back to top ]What is an interment fee?
An interment is the opening and closing fee. The interment fee can include 50 or more separate services provided by the cemetery. Typically, the interment fee includes administration and permanent record keeping (determining ownership, obtaining permission and the completion of other documentation which may be required, entering the interment particulars in the interment register, maintaining all legal files); opening and closing the grave (locating the grave and laying out the boundaries, excavating and filling the interment space); installation and removal of the lowering device; placement and removal of artificial grass dressing at the grave site, leveling, tamping and re-grading. [ back to top ]What is a burial vault?
This is the outside container into which the casket is placed. A burial vault is designed to protect the casket and keeps the grave surface from sinking in. Concrete burial vaults are available for purchase at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery. [ back to top ]What options are there for the interment of cremated remains?
For those individuals who have chosen cremation there are a various options. The Gate of Heaven Cemetery offers a niche in the columbarium or a grave site can be purchased for the interment of cremated remains. There are cremation gardens available at Mount Olivet Cemetery and Holy Cross Cemetery. [ back to top ]Can I have my cremated remains interred in an existing family grave plot?
Cremated remains can be interred in existing family graves (depending on permission being given by the current lessee of the exclusive right of burial). Perpetual Care fee applies as follows: Upon the sale of a single lot a Perpetual Care fee will be charges, Upon the interment in a lot which was sold prior to the establishment of the Perpetual Care Fund the current fee for Perpetual Care will be charged, and Interments in excess of one in a single lot will each be charged a Perpetual Care fee. Please see our Rules and Regulations, Boundaries and Care of Lots #16 for more information. [ back to top ]Why can't I decorate a grave or a niche any way I want?
We strive to balance individual and family decoration choices with the overall administration of a large cemetery system to assure order, beauty and tidiness. By our policies we strive to avoid subjectivity and assure objectivity in handling decorations. Please see our Rules and Regulations, Boundaries and Care of Lots for more information. [ back to top ]Can I obtain information on my family genealogy from the cemetery?
Because we welcome and encourage frequent contact, our cemetery office staff responds to requests for burial locations related to personal visits and other cemetery related activities.If you are seeking background information about individuals buried in our cemeteries, please use the Interment Search option on our website.
There will be a minimum $100 (including HST) charge per hour for genealogical information requests. [ back to top ]
What should I do first when a death occurs?
If you decide to use a funeral or cremation director, they are generally available to walk you carefully through all the necessary tasks, including securing the services of our cemetery.Or, you may call us at 902-429-9800 during our business hours for specific information on the services we provide during your time of need. We will coordinate our services with others from that point on. [ back to top ]
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Mi’kmaq/French Burial Ground
Sperrys Beach, Petite Riviere, NS
Sperrys Beach, Petite Riviere, NS
By Ellen Hunt
Edited by Daniel Paul
September 27, 2004
Nestled peacefully
beneath the sand of Mother Earth, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, in a plot of
land surrounded by Spruce Trees, rests the remains of ancestors of many of
today’s Mi’kmaq and Acadian citizens. It is located near Sperry’s Beach,
northwest of Indian Hill, Indian Hill Pond and Indian Point.
Today, you will find
only a few headstones and a few large flat rocks sticking up through the sand
that has washed and drifted over the site during the decades. There is also the
ruins of a stonewall that was approximately four feet high. Over the years, this
sacred burial ground has been subject to bulldozing and grave robbing.
In the early 15-1600s
it was known to the Mi’kmaq as the “Sacred Ground”. In 1604 Samuel Champlain
depicts on a map he made of the area an Indian Encampment on Indian Hill. The
Sacred Burying Ground was northwest of the encampment. Petite Riviere was known
to the Mi’kmaq as Simkook.
The Mi’kmaq lived in
Petite Riviere during the spring and summer and perhaps to some extent
throughout the year as well. Local legend reports that they brought their dead
to the Sacred Burial Ground in the spring and buried them just northwest of the
pond. The surnames of some of those interred there, Jeremy, Labrador,
LeJeune(young), Malti (Martin), Francis, Paul and Gloade, lend support to the
legend.
In 1808-1809- Paul
Malti was the Chief of the Mi’kmaq residing on a reserve on Foster’s Point,
Queens County. Ella Letson states: “He was a great friend of my grandfather Asa
Morine.”
The Mi’kmaq residing
at Foster’s Point buried their dead at Petite Riviere. Ella told me that her
aunt said she could remember the people chanting as they rowed down the river
from Port Medway to Great Island, where they portage to the other side and
continued to Petite Riviere, where they held a burial ceremony. When a Catholic
cemetery was established at Foster’s Point they buried their dead in it in
order to save them the long journey to Petite Riviere. (“ Interview with Ella
Marguerite Letson to Blake Conrad April 4, 1983. Ella was the great
granddaughter of Dorcas Cahoon Morine who was born in Salem, Mass who lived to
be over one hundred years old. Extracted from the “ Old Man Told US”).
The foundations of
buildings formerly occupied by the French can be distinctly traced on the
grounds adjacent to the burial ground. It is said that a small chapel once
stood there and that the Indians in large numbers encamped on and about the
site. They had a canoe shaped hole in the earth, where they framed the boats of
bark with which they so skilfully breasted the restless waves. Old cellars and
remains of a fort are seen near the residence of the late John G Sperry, Esq.
Cannon balls and chain-shot were taken from the ground by him. He said that he
found on his premises a depth of two feet below the surface; a deposit of clam
shells over half an acre in extent. (Extracted from the “History of Lunenburg
County” by MA Desbrisay.
Although there was
never an archaeology dig, arrowheads, spearheads, potsherds, layer of clam
shells, metal knives, axes and kettles obtained from the French, Indian relics
and stone arrowheads have been picked up along the shore by the site of the
encampment. Abundance of clam shells have been found in villagers gardens.
When I interviewed
one of the grave robbers who desecrated the Burial Ground in1953, he related to
me that the bodies were buried head to head. The bodies were wrapped in bark
and were covered with large stones. One of the graves contained a piece of iron
that looked like a horse pistol, an iron spear head, and something that looked
like a knife and the skull of the deceased had been shot above the ear. It was
a hole about two inches long and about three quarters of an inch wide. It was
like it had been made with a musket ball. The bodies were laid about one foot
apart and pointing in opposite direction. There was one stone for two bodies.
They may have been laid out in four directions.
The artefacts of the
graves were sold to Ron Fielding of Boston. There is a museum in Boston that
has arrowheads and tomahawks from the area.
An article in the
Progress Enterprise, in 1955 written by Roy K Cooke tells us the old graveyard
has rough slabs of stone for markers and drifting sand from the beach below is
almost covering the spot. The remains of the rock wall that once circled the graveyard
are almost disappeared. The French sailors, soldiers and settlers buried here
helped to guard the fort and farmed the land on both sides of the narrow river.
Now the only reminder of these explorers from St. Malo at Petite Riviere is the
lonely graveyard.
Through this research
and working with the Nova Scotia Museum and the help of others, I have
accomplished getting the burial grounds protected from any more destruction. It
now is protected under the Cemeteries Act. The burial ground is presently a
part of a pasture.
In an interview with
the owner David Himmelman, September 21, 2004, he agreed give us permanent
access to the burying ground, so we could clean it up, restore it and erect a
fence. This burying ground is our only link to our ancestors of long ago and is
a very important part of our heritage.
My hope for the
future is that I can acquire the resources to restore the Burial Ground to a
place fitting for the eternal peaceful sleep of those resting there.
Click to read about Mi'kmaq Culture
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Funeral Practices
Funeral practices consist of customary observances for the dead
and arrangements made for disposition of the body. There is a network of social
and legal requirements to be met that usually involve the services of various
professionals (seeDEATH AND DYING).
Funeral Practices
Funeral practices consist of customary observances for the dead and arrangements made for disposition of the body. There is a network of social and legal requirements to be met that usually involve the services of various professionals (seeDEATH AND DYING).Pre-Death Protocols
Many arrangements can be made prior to death, from wills to donation of body parts, but Canadian laws and customs restrict how a person's wishes are implemented after death. There is a growing tendency, supported by memorial societies and the medical fraternity, to donate body parts for transplant or for research, but an individual's wish to donate may be countermanded if the family has strong views about dismembering the deceased. Religious attitudes and traditions influence these decisions. A person may dictate the nature and type of funeral, arrange for the final disposition of the remains, and even prepare the newspaper announcement ahead of time.Today, prearranged funerals are more the norm in Canada than they were in the last century. In addition, memorial societies run by volunteers, and non-profit consumer-information organizations, are found in most major cities and have had an impact on public attitudes toward funeral costs. Their function is to encourage preplanning and to ensure that simple, low-cost funeral options are available from the funeral industry.
For highly placed individuals, or for a member of the armed forces or the police, public protocols about funeral arrangements may take precedence over individual or family customs and wishes. In all arrangements, both group values and professional organizations play a significant role. State funerals are held to honour public officials including governors general, prime ministers, and members of parliament. These public memorials are formally arranged and offer citizens an opportunity to mourn and commemorate national figures.
Pre-Burial Procedures
An individual may be pronounced dead if the vital signs are missing or if brain waves are no longer detected. If sudden death is involved or if there is no clear reason for death, the provincial coroner or medical examiner requires an autopsy to be performed. Since health care is a provincial responsibility, the legal requirements are specified in provincial legislation. In all cases, legal requirements take precedence over religious views.Conventional codes are observed in announcing a death. Immediate next of kin take precedence over relatives who may be nearer to the scene of death, and it is a breach of etiquette not to notify a close relative about a death. Since nothing can be done until the physician signs the death certificate, hospital protocol requires this step. With Orthodox Jews, there may be a delay in announcing a death (especially just before the beginning of the Sabbath) and arrangements for interment have to wait until after the Sabbath. (seeJUDAISM)
Deaths caused by infectious diseases are treated differently from other deaths; a death from a communicable disease like anthrax or rabies requires that the body be immediately sealed in a steel container or steel casket. In such cases no embalming can take place. Furthermore, if a body is to be shipped abroad, the local board of health must certify that the body is not a carrier of a communicable disease.
Funeral homes are a service industry in Canada and most funerals in remote areas take place in funeral homes. Some provinces require a funeral director to supervise an interment, though in most provinces these services are optional. Being a funeral home worker was once entirely a male occupation, but female funeral directors are now increasingly a trend in the industry.
Provincial licensing is required for embalmers, and though embalming the body is not a legal requirement in Canada, it is an accepted practice. Some provincial legislation requires embalming or sealing of bodies that will not reach their place of burial within 72 hours of the death. Educational requirements for embalmers differ throughout Canada, with a one- to two-year apprenticeship being the minimum; some jurisdictions accept a correspondence course and on-the-job training.
Certain religious groups, such as HINDUS, SIKHS and Muslims, may require preparation of the body to be done by the eldest son or by a designated individual, but for the majority of Canadians the funeral director prepares the body, washes it, ejects blood from the veins and substitutes embalming fluid (thus removing the discoloration of the skin), cleans and disinfects the chest and abdominal cavity, applies makeup, fixes the hair and dresses the body in clothes provided by the next of kin. Restorative work, if the face has been damaged, may also be done. Most Muslims are an exception to these alterations, since they traditionally wrap the body in a shroud immediately after washing the body and the burial occurs the same day as death, whenever possible. Islamic custom dictates that a burial should occur as soon as possible after death.
Funeral directors have several options regarding cost and services. Some provide a casket and all essential services for a fixed price. This unit pricing system is popular with prearranged funerals and requires less time and decision-making for the bereaved. Another option is the functional pricing system, in which the price of the chosen casket and the desired services are added to the basic price.
Widespread criticism of the industry's costs prompted some changes such as the introduction of "no-frills" organizations and companies; however, elaborate caskets and expensive services may still be purchased by relatives. Funeral costs vary from region to region or from urban to rural areas.
The Visitation or Vigil
What was at one time called "the wake" is now a visitation or vigil. It is held in the presence of the deceased prior to burial. In the past, it commonly took place at the home of the family of the deceased. Although this custom still exists, especially in families that have recently come from Europe, vigils have commonly been replaced by viewing times at the funeral home with members of the family who respond to the condolences of visitors. First nations people may choose a casket with Aboriginal designs, especially if the ceremony includes an open casket. For many years it was customary for friends and relatives to buy flowers, and the size of the floral spray varied according to the relationship with the deceased. In recent years a marked trend is to request gifts to charities in lieu of flowers.Funeral services differ according to religious and cultural practices. For Muslims, if there is no local mosque, the last prayer over the body may take place in the deceased's home prior to transportation to the cemetery. For this tradition no embalming was practised and the final prayer was held the same day; therefore, a quick interment was in the hands of the men in the community. For Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Eastern ORTHODOX Christians, as well as for those who were closely connected to a church during their lives, the norm is to have the service at the church with the body present. For some of these faiths, the church is the only sanctified location where a mass may be held, but in many communities the church is regarded as the proper place for funerals, no matter what the denomination. In urban settings, the funeral chapel plays a much larger role. A more recent trend is the memorial service, where the dead is honoured through a celebration of his or her accomplishments, often with specially selected poetry or music reflecting something of the deceased's tastes. Such services may be devoid of any religious reference. A trend towards no funeral service has increased notably over the last two decades, (ie, because of cremation, delayed burial or private celebrations) though it is impossible to quantify the extent of this development.
Funeral processions are headed by cars containing the mourners and followed by the hearse and friends of the family. The lights on the motorcade were traditionally the signal for bystanders to pause to show respect for the departed, a custom that has gradually eroded. Traditionally, Chinese mourners insisted on an impressive funeral procession to reflect the status of the individual in the community.
Interment
The norm for interment is ground burial in ethnically and religiously appropriate cemeteries. Cremation (reducing the body to ashes by burning) is increasingly common in Canada. Early Canadian Buddhists, based on the model of the Buddha, uniformly cremated the deceased; currently some Buddhists have departed from this tradition and utilize ground burial, or interment of the ashes in a grave. Some Orthodox Christians, traditional Muslims, Jews and Indigenous people resist cremation on religious grounds. Even among Roman Catholics the trend toward cremation is growing, especially since 1983 when the Pope lifted the official prohibition against the practice. Furthermore, direction for burial is important for Sunni Muslims, who are typically placed facing Mecca. Funeral directors suggest that the mode of disposal is defined culturally, not religiously. Lack of space available for burial use has also encouraged the trend to cremation.The "greening" of the industry is another recent trend, affecting everything from the wood stain used on caskets to reducing the gas costs for cremation. A new kind of preservative is being promoted to replace the formaldehyde that is used in the embalming process because of the longevity of formaldehyde and its impact on the soil in cemeteries. Some funeral homes now cater almost exclusively to the green market.
CEMETERIES may be either private or public, though there are legislated restrictions on private cemeteries. A gravesite is regarded by law as a piece of real estate and a deed is issued for the lot. The "deed" is frequently a form of rental and not a complete transfer of title. Most cemeteries have regulations regarding TOMBSTONES, markers and even flowers; contemporary cemeteries often try to create a park-like setting rather than traditional rows of graves. Ethnic, religious and even sectarian cemeteries are common in Canada and have restrictions based on memberships.
Cemeteries may impose time limits on the use of plots or may reuse a plot for a relative after a specified period of time. The trend away from ostentatious monuments continues, sometimes at cemeteries' insistence, but also because of high prices for materials such as marble. Some memorial parks with special theme areas or ethnic gardens have been established across the country, and costs for their plots include a percentage for perpetual care.
The graveside service with the committal to earth, historically completed with a symbolic toss of soil on the lowered casket, is the last act of the mourners. Closing the grave is left to the cemetery workers. Disposal of ashes from cremation is left to the family of the deceased, and since there are no laws requiring specific placement of deposits, the ashes may be spread anywhere. Some people arrange for the ashes to be placed in an urn, and some cemeteries sell niches in a vault for this purpose.
Post-Burial Rites
No set period is allocated for the bereavement process; traditional Jewish law specifies one week of mourning, after which reintegration with the community is enjoined. Widows in some traditions, such as Coptic Christian, are required to wear black clothing for a year, at the end of which a memorial service is held. Some Catholics adhere to the practice of holding a mass on the first anniversary of the death and some have masses said for the deceased, but Protestants have eschewed this remembrance of the dead. Some Muslims have a memorial dinner annually, especially if the individual was well-known in the community.Mormons often initiate special rituals designed to elevate to a state of grace the souls of those who have died without being initiated into the faith. Various Orthodox believers have an annual day for remembering the dead, when the names of all the dead from the community are read, and prayers said, after which the family will visit the gravesite.
For most Canadians, the funeral service is the last public occasion for relating to the dead. Among some Indigenous peoples of the Yukon and northern BC, small houses surrounded by a fence are built over a grave, with symbolic offerings for the journey to the land of the dead. Mausoleums may also be erected for the wealthy or distinguished deceased, but cost and a resistance to glorifying the dead has kept the practice from becoming widespread. For those who leave a will, an executor will call the beneficiaries together for its reading, and the memory of the deceased lives on in the disposal of the inheritance. Private grave visitation may serve to bolster the memory but, except for those who follow ancestral traditions, there is little overt link with the dead.
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Mi'kmaq Burial Grounds - Nova Scotia
www.danielnpaul.com/Mi'kmaqBurialGround.htmlCached
Mi'kmaq Burial Grounds, ... Nova Scotia :
Home. Mi'kmaq Burial Ground ... When a Catholic cemetery was established at
Foster’s Point they buried their dead in it in ...
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A Grave Addiction: Halifax’s Old Burying Ground
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
I have a soft spot for cemeteries, the older the
better. Quite frankly, unless you’re seeing someone off to the Great Beyond,
they are remarkably agreeable places to pass an afternoon. Older cemeteries
have the advantage of sitting on large parcels of prime real estate often
located in their city cores – mature well-treed lots that make urban developers
salivate. Historically, grave sites were located well outside city walls to
decrease the possibility of contamination. As populations swelled, these walls
were pushed outwards so that these cities of the dead were embraced by those of
the living. They are both urban anachronisms, gentle oases lying in the shadows
of inner-city skyscrapers, and outdoor museums. Consequently, they provide the
visitor with a tangible snapshot of history, a contained, contextual view of
one’s past – like a fly caught in amber. They are the heart of a city, the soul
of a community.
The window beside my computer overlooks Halifax’s Old
Burying Ground, on the corner of Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road. In a
city whose weather changes every fifteen minutes, the cemetery has been my
barometer for several years. I have marked the passing of the seasons� I have
contemplated the cemetery when it has been carpeted in a Persian carpet of
persimmon-coloured leaves and I have despaired at the bleakness of its trees
silhouetted in a weak winter’s light. But I have equally found cheer in its
tiny shoots of green which pierce its snow and have played voyeur to the
reverent meanderings of genealogists, amateur anthropologists and tourists
among the grave stones or espy an office worker eating lunch in the shade. This
spring, to a litany of chainsaws and power tools, I watched (and listened) as
trees uprooted by Hurricane Juan were reduced to stumps. Removed to the
neighbouring grounds of the (formerly) Technical University of Nova Scotia, a few
enterprising individuals (rumour has it they were architecture rather than
engineering students) created a short-lived gallery al fresco of stumps
positioned in well-designed patterns.
In
1749, the land outside my window (then the artillery stockade) was established
as a common burial ground, thus becoming the first burial ground in Halifax.
The city’s southern wall ran along what is now Salter Street, up behind St
Mary’s Basilica – just north of (or across the street from) the cemetery. This
nondenominational cemetery became the final resting place for many members of
Halifax’s founding families, as well as men from the British army and the Royal
Navy who died in the region. In 1793 the graveyard was granted to St. Paul’s
Church (Canada’s oldest Anglican Church). During its 95 years of active
service, over 12,000 individuals were buried here although only one thousand
(or so) foot and headstones are actually in tact. The burial of individuals in
unmarked graves was commonplace among the poor or during periods of epidemic
when production for gravestones could not keep up with the demands of the
dying. For the most part, graves are laid out on an east-west axis so that the
deceased’s feet point east and head toward the west, hearkening to the
Christian belief in the resurrection when the dead rise and face a new day in
the next life.
The tomb stones were hand carved (many of the stones’
backs still bear chisel marks) on slate that was imported from Massachusetts’
Bay until the American Revolution. Thereafter, local carvers continued the
craft using indigenous slate, known as “ironstone” which was of a poorer
quality. During the graveyard’s last twenty years or so of operation, larger
and rather plain sandstone gravestones were erected.
Viewed as sacrosanct, cemeteries are historically
well maintained by their communities and endure better than other examples of
domestic architecture. Cemeteries therefore offer a wealth of information so,
understandably, archaeologists have long studied these relatively untouched
repositories for the historical clues they offer. In all fields of study,
scholars have developed paleographic tools which enable them to use graphic
images and language to date objects. In the study of graveyards, there is an
iconography of the dead: the symbolism of its grave art, which like everything
in life has a defined period of popularity, a shelf life in retrospective.
Unlike today, the selection of gravestone symbols – itself a comprehensible
language within its community – was more deliberate and played a greater role
in the communal “death experience”. An entire community could find expression
in this symbolism or use it to represent its own unique predilections. Commonly
used to indicate membership in religious and secular groups, grave symbols
could also identify social standing and the race and ethnic identity of a
group. A tombstone’s size can also be an indicator of power, as it tends to
decrease among those belonging to men, women, children, and among the rich and
the poor.
Funereal
symbols and funeral monuments encapsulate and elicit a range of emotions:
austerity, despair, hope – I have even seen statuary that can only be described
as sexy. On face value, the gravestones in the Old Burying Grounds appear to be
rather sober and there are scant monuments – there are few towering obelisks
here. But a closer look yields a wealth of imagery and symbolism: urns, plain
and beribboned (the soul), winged effigies or cherubs (soul in flight),
death’s heads (mortality, penance) and winged death’s heads (ascension
into heaven), bones (decay), Masonic symbols (fraternal
association), stars (divine guidance), suns (soul rising to
heaven), moons (rebirth), birds (peace, messengers of god),
poppies (sleep), six-pointed stars (creation), upright
hourglasses (passing of time) and hourglasses spilled (life
interrupted), willow trees and branches (mourning), and in one case,
a coat of arms. It should be noted that although there is a canon of
interpretation for these symbols, not all scholars agree to their exact
meaning. It has been noted that the iconography of the earlier period (skeletal
remains) reflect a more puritanical contempt for the world of the flesh, while
the cherubs that followed illustrate a rise in romanticism with its attendant
desire of immortality. During the 19th century, the belief of man’s
supremacy and individuality (as witnessed with advances in science and
technology) translates itself as self-interest – the overriding emotion
portrayed is now grief at one’s own death (willow trees, urns).
Under a tiny death’s head is the cemetery’s oldest
marked grave, belonging to two-year old Malachi Salter Jr. who, in 1752, left
the embrace of his family for his place on what was then Pleasant Street.
General Robert Ross, responsible for the burning of Washington during the War
of 1812, found repose here as did Captain Lawrence of the USS Chesapeake
(immortalize for his rallying cry “Don’t give up the ship”), although he was
later repatriated to the United States.
The graves of the unfamiliar bear poignant witness to
the passing and final resting of men, women and children (many infants) who,
for the most part, are no longer known to us. Women are designated as “wife of”
or “mother of”; the gravestones of children often only bear their names and
their exact age at death. An exception is little Ann Welsh (age 1 year and 3
months) whose passing is recorded with notable tenderness: “alas she is gone
and like the spotless dove to encrease (sic) the number of blest above.” In
some instances, the manner of death is indicated (two young siblings died from
ailments associated with the throat). One of the most intriguing gravestones
belongs to James Bossom who “was Willfully Murdered On the Morning of the 8th
of August 1839 by Smith D. Clark in the 23rd year of his Age.” One
can only hope that Mr. Clark was indeed guilty of the crime which was set in
stone for all to read.
In
1844, the Old Burying Ground closed, sending future tenants a few blocks away
to the Camp Hill Cemetery. In 1855, the Sebastopol memorial was erected at its
entrance, a rare pre-Confederation monument to honour two local men, Major A.F.
Welsford and Captain William Parker, both killed in the Crimean War. Its
construction is accredited to George Laing who also built the Federal Building
in Halifax (what is now the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia). Its well-coiffed lion
stands menacingly atop the arch, a confirmation of the bravery of those who
died at war. Interestingly, lions are rarely used in cemetery iconography but,
when they do appear, are believed to guard against the entry of impious
visitors. In the 1860’s, the Old Burying Ground was landscaped and encircled by
the wrought iron fence which, for the most part, stands today.
Since its inception in 1749, the Old Burying Ground
has slumbered in a peaceful reverie while, before its gates, history –
including two world wars and the devastating explosion of 1917 – changed the
map of Halifax. This past year has taken its toll on the cemetery but in a more
direct fashion – its trees were brutally assaulted by the winds of Hurricane
Juan and then enveloped in the snows of its winter counterpart. When I look out
the window now, I see markedly fewer trees and the canopy of foliage that once
enticed visitors to take pause among the grave stones is less luxuriant.
Cemeteries, even those whose gates are now closed, are living organisms,
embodying the Russian proverb: we live as long as we are remembered.
Like other living creatures, many have been added to endangered cemetery lists
the world over. At dusk, as I look out over the cemetery, the fading summer
light reflects through its remaining trees and the evening traffic seems
magically still. It has survived much and I do not fear for it.
Notable Notes
- The cemetery is located in downtown Halifax, at the corners of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street, across from Saint Mary’s Basilica and St. Paul’s Church.
- A restoration project was initiated in the mid 1980’s to combat the effects of vandalism and time; it now serves as an outdoor museum and park.
- Grave rubbings are not permitted.
- Didactic panels are situated throughout the cemetery to assist visitors.
- Admission is free.
- The site is preserved and maintained by the Old Burying Ground Society (who also restored the cemetery).
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25 Unique And Interesting Ways People Bury Their Dead
Posted by David Pegg on June 17, 2013
YOUTUBE....
25 Unique and Interesting Ways People Bury Their Dead
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9 Ways To Make Your Own Funeral Fun
1) Put a “Please Do Not disturb sign” on the side of the coffin.
2) Place nearby a glass box with a wooden stake in it, with sign “Break Glass In Case Of Emergency”
3) Attach a Romney/Ryan 2012 bumper sticker to the coffin.
4) Send out an automated e-mail to all invited guests with an apology that you will not be able to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
5) Wear pajamas in the coffin. I mean, this is clearly not the best of all possible occasions, so why not save your best suit for something else?
6) Attach “Hello, my name is…” sticker to your pajamas.
7) Hide an mp3 player inside the casket so that whenever the lid is closed it will play random pre-recorded phone conversations from inside, like “…So what’s up… Listen, can I call you in a few minutes? I am kind of busy right now…”…”What are you doing this weekend?”… “No, I am not interested in a subscription to New York Times…”
8) Ask to get buried in your cubicle at work. It is already a proper size and shape, and just needs to be filled in with the TPS reports. Plus, your nameplate is already there.
9) Put off your funeral for as long as possible. A thorough preparation is key to success.
Normally, I’d make it an even 10 suggestions, but then your funeral could become so much fun that your friends will start looking forward to it.
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Grand-Pré Cemetery - Acadian Ancestral Home by...
www.acadian-home.org/Grand-Pre-Cemetery.htmlCached
... one can assume that the
French and Acadian Catholics in Nova Scotia did ... burials at Grand-Pre, ...
prize-winning book The Acadians of Nova Scotia ...
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Nova Scotia : Cape Breton County : Cemetery...
capebretongenweb.com/Cemeteries/cemindx.htmlCached
Lower River Inhabitants Catholic Cemetery Lower River/Evanston
Nancy ... (Also a List of approx. 50 people buried in this Cemetery for whom
there are no ...
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The Churches of Old Acadia. - Blupete
www.blupete.com/Genealogy/Famille.htmCached
It will be seen that the
original territory of Acadia was fully contained within peninsular Nova Scotia
... all catholic churches ... Buried at La Sainte Famille ...
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Learn and talk about Mount Olivet Cemetery...
www.digplanet.com/wiki/Mount_Olivet_Cemetery_(Halifax)Cached
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a
Roman Catholic cemetery located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada at which 19
bodies recovered from the RMS Titanic are buried.
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Kings County, Nova Scotia Cemeteries - John...
johncardinal.com/kings/cem.htmCached
... Two Hundred Years of the
Cornwallis Pastoral Charge Nova Scotia ... The last person buried ... KINGSTON
RC* [64] Name and Address: St. Lawrence Roman Catholic ...
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Annapolis County, Nova Scotia Cemetery Records
www.canadiangenealogy.net/novascotia/cemeteries/...Cached
Annapolis County, Nova Scotia
Cemetery Records. ... St. Alphonsus Catholic Church Cemetery: Old Town
Cemetery: Saunders Road Cemetery: Carlton Corner.
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Holy Cross Historical Trust
www.holycrosshalifax.caCached
Holy Cross is a treasured
pastoral cemetery of mainly Irish Catholic heritage in the heart of Halifax, Nova
Scotia. ... Cdn Catholic Historical Association
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NOVA | The Bible's Buried Secrets
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/bibles-buried-secrets.htmlCached
The Bible's Buried Secrets.
An archeological detective story traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible. ... On
NOVA's Bible's Buried Secrets Web site, ...
VIDEO-
Program Description
In this landmark two-hour special, NOVA takes viewers on a scientific journey that began 3,000 years ago and continues today. The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?In addition to the Editors' Picks at left, see the original program website for more related features.
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CANADA ENCYCLOPEDIA-
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is Canada’s second-smallest
province (following Prince Edward Island) and is located on the
southeastern coast of the country.
Nova Scotia is Canada’s second-smallest province (following Prince Edward Island) and is located on the southeastern coast of the country. The province includes Cape Breton,
a large island northeast of the mainland. The name Nova Scotia is Latin
for “New Scotland,” reflecting the origins of some of the early
settlers. Given its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, Nova Scotia’s
economy is largely influenced by the sea, and its harbours have served
as military bases during many wars.
The Atlantic Upland is one of Nova Scotia’s chief physical features and is recognized by its five fragments, separated in places by extensive lowlands. Of these fragments, the largest is the Southern Upland, which occupies the southern and central part of the province. Starting at the rugged Atlantic coast, and marked by many inlets, islands, coves and bays, it rises to an altitude of 180 to 210 m in the interior. Its northern border constitutes the South Mountain. The second fragment is the North Mountain, a range of trap rock that runs parallel to the South Mountain for 190 km along the Bay of Fundy, from Cape Blomidon, on Minas Basin, to Brier Island.
Between the two mountain ranges lie the fertile valleys of the Annapolis and Cornwallis rivers, which together constitute the well-known apple-growing region of Nova Scotia. The third fragment consists of the flat-topped Cobequid Mountain, rising to 300 m and extending 120 km across Cumberland County, while the fourth has its beginnings in the eastern highlands of Pictou County. It extends in a long narrowing projection through Antigonish County to Cape George. The fifth fragment, on northern Cape Breton Island, is a wild, wooded plateau that peaks to a height of more than 550 m above sea level. It contributes to the highly scenic character of Cape Breton Highlands National Park, especially as viewed from the Cabot Trail, which runs through it. In contrast, the southern part of Cape Breton Island is largely lowland.
Geology
The deep drainage channels that cut through the uplands have exposed the roots of the mountains. The exposure has laid bare rocks that are among the oldest of the Earth's crust and are representative of most of the geological time scale. Peninsular Nova Scotia consists of Paleozoic cover pierced by a granite backbone that, because it is highly resistant to change, occupies the higher elevations.
The North Mountain resulted from volcanic action in Triassic times, and the Annapolis and Cornwallis valleys were carved out in the same period. Practically all the industrial minerals, including gypsum, limestone, sandstone, salt and barites, occur in rocks of the Mississippian age. The coal deposits of the province are to be found in the several groups of Pennsylvanian rocks, especially the Pictou, Stellarton and Morien groups.
Surface
Originally, most of the province was covered by forest, but little of the virgin forest remains, except in the plateau of northeast Cape Breton Island. Secondary growth has tended to be coniferous because of the acid soil and the slow growing season, but hardwoods continue to exist in sufficient abundance to produce a colourful display in the autumn. In swampy areas and rocky barrens, mosses, lichens, ferns, scrub heath and similar growths are common. Wild flowers grow in profusion, among which the mayflower, pitcher plant, white water lily and several varieties of violets stand out for their beauty.
Widely found throughout the province are herbaceous plants such as Clintonia, cranberries, blueberries and many species of goldenrod. The European cuckooflower has become common in the Annapolis Lowland, while the ragwort has spread over eastern Nova Scotia.
Roughly 29 per cent of Nova Scotia’s land is suitable for agricultural purposes. The best farming land is in the lowlands, where soils have developed on deep tills; the uplands usually have shallow, stony soils. The most extensive lowlands, and hence the best agricultural land, are along the Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait. The tremendously high tides of the Bay of Fundy have created large areas of marshland, which, by means of dykes begun in Acadian times, have been converted into valuable agricultural lands.
Water
Nova Scotia includes over 3,000 lakes, as well as hundreds of streams and small rivers. Because of the general direction of the watersheds, the rivers cannot be long, but with moderately heavy precipitation, normally no shortage of water occurs.
The province's largest lake, the 1,099 km2 Bras D’Or, was created when the sea invaded the area between the upland and lowland areas of Cape Breton. Saline and tideless, it is widely used for recreation. On the peninsula, the largest lake is Lake Rossignol.
Though short, the rivers have had considerable significance historically and economically. The Sackville and Shubenacadie, used extensively by Aboriginal peoples, were important in early transportation. Some, such as the Mersey, continue to play a significant role in lumber and pulpwood production, while others, such as the Margaree and St Mary's, have become celebrated as salmon streams. Several rivers have afforded the means to construct hydroelectric power plants, however small.
The high tides of the Bay of Fundy are a remarkable phenomenon. The bay, which is 270 km long and 80 km at its mouth, narrows to 56 km (its average width), where it divides into Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay. At high tide, the water is forced forward to reach a height over 16 m above low-tide level in its narrowest extremities. The high tides facilitate the loading of gypsum, lumber and the like by freighters, which at low tide rest on mud flats.
Climate
Weather systems moving eastward from the interior of the continent dominate the province's weather. These systems often react with low-pressure systems coming from the south and moving northeastwardly along the coast, and the whole is affected by the proximity of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream. Generally the water has a moderating influence on the climate, particularly along the Atlantic coast, where the average winter temperatures range from 0 to -15°C, while the summers are typically 20 to 25°C.
The influence of the sea is felt in other ways. Ice brought down by the Labrador Current leads to a late spring marked by cold winds, rain and mist. In summer, especially in June and July, the mingling of the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current produces a great deal of sea fog, which often drifts over the coastal areas.
The coastal areas are both milder and wetter than the rest of the province. Yearly rainfall averages over 1,000 mm, and snowfall over 200 cm.
Conservation
The province’s conservation efforts are directed through the Department of Natural Resources. This department oversees the development, management, conservation and protection of energy, forest, minerals, parks, protected areas and wildlife resources.
Much of the department’s protection efforts are directed toward forests. The department is continually improving forest management practices, and from its Forest Protection headquarters at Shubenacadie, fire and pest management are coordinated. To preserve and promote the inland salmon and trout fisheries, the province manages water control, restocking of lakes and research. Under the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, passed in 2007 and amended in 2012, the department hopes to protect 12 per cent of Nova Scotia’s landmass by 2015.
The provincial park system comprises over 300 provincial parks and reserves, but most of them are small in size. The largest protected areas are the National Parks (Cape Breton Highlands, Kejimkujik and Sable Island Reserve), the game sanctuaries and Tobeatic Wildlife Management Area.
As in the rest of Canada, Nova Scotia has experienced a marked shift from rural to urban living since Confederation. However, its rural population remains relatively high at 43 per cent of the total population (2011).
Halifax is both the capital and the largest urban centre in the province. In 2011, it had a population of 390,328, or roughly 42 per cent of the provincial population. The next most-populous centres range in size from just under 20,000 to about 46,000 and include Sydney, Truro, New Glasgow and Glace Bay. The remainder of the province’s communities have populations under 15,000.
Going back as far as the mid-1970s, Nova Scotia has consistently had an unemployment rate higher than the national average. In 2012, the unemployment rate was nine per cent (compared to 7.2 per cent nationally), making it among the highest in the country.
Language and Ethnicity
In the 2006 census, the most-reported ethnic origins were Canadian, Scottish, English, Irish and French. The visible minority population was relatively small — four per cent of the total population — with black, Arab and Chinese people making up the three largest communities within this group.
The vast majority of the population (92 per cent) reported English as their mother tongue, while those reporting French and those reporting a non-official language were almost equal — 3.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. The Acadian and francophone populations are concentrated in Halifax, Digby and Yarmouth on the mainland, and in Inverness and Richmond counties on Cape Breton Island. Legislation enacted in 1981 granted Acadians the right to receive education in their first language.
Religion
As in other parts of the country, the population of Nova Scotia is overwhelmingly Christian, with 75 per cent of the population identifying with a Christian denomination in 2011. Following Christianity, the most reported religions were Islam (0.9 per cent), Buddhism, (0.2 per cent) and Judaism (0.2 per cent). Those reporting no religious affiliation accounted for 21 per cent of the population.
The first peoples in what is now Nova Scotia were the Mi'kmaq, who belonged to a wider coalition known as the Wabanaki Confederacy, whose members were in turn part of the Algonquin-language family in eastern North America. The Mi'kmaq presence can be traced as far back as 10,000 years. They were hunters and traders and, because of their proximity to the ocean, skilled saltwater fishers. When the first Europeans arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries, Mi'kmaq territory stretched across all of modern-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, most of New Brunswick and westward into the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec — an area known as Mi'kma'ki. The Mi'kmaq established better relations with the French settlers than with the English.
European Exploration and Settlement
Long before John Cabot made landfall in 1497 (possibly on Cape Breton Island), Norse adventurers may have reached Nova Scotia. Scores of other explorers and fishermen plied its coasts before Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain established Port-Royal in 1605 — the first agricultural settlement by Europeans in Canada, and the beginnings of the French colony of Acadia.
In 1621 King James I of England named the same territory New Scotland (or Nova Scotia, as it was called in its Latin charter) and granted the land to the Scottish colonizer Sir William Alexander. In the 1620s, the Scots established two settlements, but both were unsuccessful. Meanwhile a small but steady stream of immigrants continued to arrive from France for a new life in Acadia.
Armed conflict ensued between the French and British, and throughout the 17th century Acadia was handed back and forth between the European powers. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht finally put an end to Acadia, transferring the colony — but not ÃŽle Royale (Cape Breton Island) or ÃŽle Saint-Jean (PEI) — to Britain. Aside from maintaining a small garrison at Port Royal, renamed Annapolis Royal, the British did little with Nova Scotia until 1749, when Halifax was founded as a military town and naval base on the shores of what the Mi'kmaq called the "Great Harbour." Halifax's purpose was to balance out the French military presence at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton.
The Seven Years War between France and Britain brought great change to Nova Scotia. British military officials feared the colony's large Roman Catholic Acadian population — despite its expressions of neutrality — would side with the French during the war. The result, starting in 1755, was the Acadian Expulsion, in which British forces rounded up more than 6,000 Acadian men, women and children, and dispersed them on ships to various American colonies. In 1758, as these traumatic deportations were still under way, Louisbourg fell to the British, precipitating the Conquest of Canada in 1760, and the ceding to Britain of Cape Breton Island in the Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1763.
Development
In peacetime, Nova Scotia prospered, with settlers arriving from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. Loyalists, both white and black, as well as former black slaves, also arrived following the American Revolution. During the early part of the 19th century the colony grew as a fish exporting, lumbering and shipbuilding centre, and Halifax emerged as an important merchant hub and a base for British privateering captains.
Starting in 1864 the Confederation question left a mark on the province. Nova Scotia's economy was closely tied, as were many families, to the New England states. The province’s prosperity relied on seaborne trade south to the United States and east across the Atlantic, and many did not relish the idea of setting up new economic and political links with the Province of Canada, or with a remote interior further west. Despite these fears the colony became one of the four founding provinces of the new Dominion of Canada in 1867; however, a strong anti-Confederate movement existed for many years, with some Nova Scotians flying flags at half-mast on 1 July.
In the 20th century the First World War stimulated the provincial economy with an increased demand for iron, steel, fish and lumber. The war also brought disaster in the form of the Halifax Explosion; and the war's end brought with it recession, which lasted for several years. Nova Scotia enjoyed good economic times again during the Second World War. Halifax became one of the major North American ports for the gathering of trans-Atlantic convoys, which carried munitions and other wartime supplies to Western Europe.
Since the mid-1950s Nova Scotia has struggled financially, and economic development has been one of the primary concerns for provincial politicians. The fishing industry — especially lobster and shellfish exports — has remained a mainstay of the economy, sustaining many coastal communities even through the collapse of cod and other groundfish stocks in the 1990s.
As manufacturing began its steady decline in the 1950s, coal mining and steel making continued in Cape Breton with the help of massive government subsidies, until the last coal mine was shut down in 2001. Its closure ended a way of life and left the Sydney Tar Ponds — the result of decades of coke oven effluent — as the steel mill's environmental legacy. In an effort to contain the contaminants, the waste was eventually buried, and Open Hearth Park opened on the site of the ponds in 2013.
Coal was also mined on the Nova Scotia mainland starting in the 19th century, and certain strip mining operations continue to this day. The Springhill mine was the site of three deadly disasters, the most famous being the 1958 underground earthquake, which trapped 174 miners and became an international news spectacle.
Offshore oil and natural gas production began in 1992, bringing new revenues and opportunities to the province, but was not the economic windfall many had hoped for. Economic uncertainty continues in the 21st century, with pulp and paper mills across the province closing down and many rural communities in decline as people move to the Halifax area for jobs primarily in government, universities, the burgeoning aerospace sector and the military. Since 2011, great hopes have been pinned on the opportunities that might arise from the awarding of a long-term contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct 21 new combat ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. It is the largest military procurement in Canadian history.
While the Mi’kmaq relied on hunting for their food, fishing captains in the early 16th century are believed to have cultivated vegetable gardens to feed their crews. At the same time, the French were growing grain at Port-Royal and in 1609 they erected the first water-powered gristmill in North America. To secure salt for curing fish, they also built dykes along tidal marshes and later used them to begin dykeland agriculture. Since the 1950s, the Department of Agriculture has preserved, extended and rebuilt this system of dykes.
About three per cent of Nova Scotia’s land, or 181,915 ha, is currently used for agriculture. The largest cultivated areas are found in the Annapolis Valley and in some parts of northern Nova Scotia. In 2011, the average farm size was 261 acres, compared to the national average of 778. Gross farm receipts in 2010 were $594.9 million, of which poultry and dairy farms accounted for 46 per cent.
The county fair is an important institution, and the one at Windsor, established in 1765, is the oldest of its type in North America.
Mining
Historically by far the most important mineral in Nova Scotia is coal. The rapid increase in coal production and the development of the steel industry were primarily responsible for the province's prosperity in the early 20th century. After the Second World War conditions in the coal areas were often troubled, and in the late 1950s the market contracted greatly in the face of competition from petroleum and natural gas. Production declined from about 6.6 million tonnes in 1950 to about 2 million in 1971.
Coal made a striking comeback in the 1990s. Following large increases in petroleum prices the province was determined to reduce dependency on foreign oil by replacing it with thermal coal. Production in 1999 amounted to over 1.5 million tonnes worth more than $100 million. While the last Cape Breton coal mine closed in 2001, there are two coal strip mining operations in the province, one in Stellarton and the other Point Aconi.
Other minerals mined in Nova Scotia include gypsum, salt, limestone and sand.
See Coal Mining.
Energy
Before 1973 the generation of electric energy was in the hands of the Nova Scotia Power Commission, a government agency established in 1919, and the Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, a private utility. In 1973 they were united in a crown corporation, the Nova Scotia Power Corp. The corporation was privatized in 1992 and is now an incorporated entity.
In 1950 about 70 per cent of the province's energy needs were met by hydroelectric power and indigenous coal. Convinced that cheap oil would continue to be available and that nuclear energy would be less expensive than that derived from coal, governments allowed a situation to develop in which, by 1978, over 70 per cent of the electricity was produced from oil. Nova Scotia had the most expensive energy in Canada because of major increases in oil costs, with the exception of PEI.
In 1979 the Energy Planning Board was established under the new Department of Mines and Energy to devise an energy strategy. This strategy aimed to develop the few remaining hydroelectric opportunities, to open new coal mines and expand existing ones so as to permit oil-fired generating plants to be phased out. As a part of these efforts the Annapolis River tidal plant was completed in 1984. It was the first tidal plant in North America, using the largest turbine ever built for hydroelectric development, and remains the only commercial tidal generating plant in North America Over 30 years later, the strategy to move away from oil-fired generating plants has been successful: in 2012, less than two per cent of the province’s electricity generation came from oil, while 59 per cent came from coal; 21 per cent from natural gas; and 18 per cent from renewable sources such as wind, tidal and hydro. The province’s next challenge is to phase out coal as an energy source, as it is not environmentally or economically sustainable. Nova Scotia is doing this gradually — in previous years the amount of energy produced from coal was as high as 80 per cent.
Offshore drilling for oil and natural gas began in the late 1960s, with the province’s first offshore discovery occurring at Sable Island in 1971. Canada’s first offshore project — Cohasset-Panuke — began production in 1992 (ending in 1999). More discoveries led to the first offshore oil and gas legislation in 1982. In March of that year, Premier John Buchanan signed a 42-year agreement with the federal government giving Nova Scotia the same benefits from its offshore resources that Alberta receives from its land-based oil and gas.
There is currently one offshore project in operation—the Sable Offshore Energy Project—while a second, the Deep Panuke Offshore Gas Development Project, began production in 2013.
Forestry
Nova Scotia has just over 4 million ha of forest, accounting for 79 per cent of its total land area. This resource has always been important in Nova Scotia's economy (see Timber Trade History). In the 19th century, for example, much of the province’s prosperity came from wooden ships and the lumber they carried overseas.
The most common softwood is spruce. Balsam fir is used for pulpwood and Christmas trees. The most important commercial hardwoods are red maple, sugar maple and yellow birch. Sugar maple also forms the basis of an industry for woodlot owners, especially in the north, through the production of maple syrup and allied products.
Fisheries
In terms of landed value (i.e., catch brought ashore), Nova Scotia is a leader among Atlantic coast fisheries. In 2012, for example, it accounted for about 47 per cent ($77 million) of the total landed value of fish caught along the Atlantic Ocean.
Salt and dried fish for export to Latin America was once the staple of the market, but quick-frozen and filleted fishdominate.
Since the Second World War, schooners with dories have given way to draggers that fish the entire year. More valuable than groundfish such as haddock and cod are molluscs and crustaceans such as scallops and lobsters. The groundfish are caught both by offshore trawlers and draggers, and by inshore boats including long-liners. Lobsters are taken largely inshore by Cape Island boats; scallops by both offshore and inshore draggers; herring by seiners.
See History of Commercial Fisheries.
Industry
Manufacturing industries do not have a large presence in Nova Scotia. For example, in 2013, the province accounted for less than two per cent of Canada’s manufacturing sales. What products the province does manufacture, however, are namely food, wood and plastics.
Transportation
In early Nova Scotia the sea was the only highway. In the late 1760s, road building began. Politics in the latter 19th century were focused on the railway, with virtually the province’s entire railway being built between 1854 and 1914.
Due to its ice-free, deep-water harbour located a full day closer to Europe than its major American East Coast competitors, the port of Halifax maintains its competitive edge in the international shipping business. Halifax is one of the largest natural harbours in the world and has one of the largest container ports in Canada.
VIA Rail offers passenger service with stations in Halifax, Amherst, Springhill Junction and Truro. Seagoing car ferries connect southwestern Nova Scotia with New England (via Yarmouth to Bar Harbor, Maine, and via Yarmouth to Portland, Maine) and with New Brunswick (via Digby to Saint John). In addition, car ferries operate from the province to Newfoundland (via North Sydney to Port-aux-Basques, and via North Sydney to Argentia) and to PEI (via Caribou to Wood Islands).
Halifax International Airport, the seventh busiest in Canada and the Atlantic regional hub, enjoys service to major national and international points by major Canadian carriers. Other airports include the Sydney Airport in Cape Breton and Yarmouth International Airport.
The Reformers finally achieved success when, in the election of 1847, they won a seven-seat majority. In February 1848 James B. Uniacke became premier, with Howe acting as provincial secretary, together forming the first ministry operating under responsible government in British North America. Howe eventually became premier and also a federal Cabinet minister, despite having also led the movement to oppose Nova Scotia's entry into Confederation. (See also Nova Scotia and Confederation.)
Provincial Government
Legally, executive power in Nova Scotia is vested in the lieutenant-governor; practically, however, it is exercised by the Executive Council or Cabinet, responsible to a 51-member legislature. Universal suffrage for males and females over 21 came into effect in 1920; the voting age was reduced to 19 in 1970 and to 18 in 1973.
The first genuine political parties appeared in the election of 1836 when the Tories (Conservatives) battled the Reformers (Liberals), who had come into existence almost overnight under the guidance of Joseph Howe. Until 1867 the parties contended fairly equally, but the Confederation issue upset the rough balance in favour of the anti-Confederates (Liberals). Up until 1956, the Conservatives won only four elections and were in office only 13 of the 89 years. Since the Second World War, however, a lessening in traditional voting within the Liberal Party and the influence of Conservative Premier Robert Stanfield combined to narrow differences in electoral strength and to make the parties genuinely competitive. In the 21st century the New Democratic Party has also grown in popularity, forming a breakthrough majority government —the first NDP government east of Ontario — in 2009.
It has been very difficult to supplant established Nova Scotian premiers. W.S. Fielding (premier 1884–96), George Murray (1896–1923 — an astonishing 27 years in power), Angus L. Macdonald (1933–40 and 1945–54), Stanfield (1956–67) and John Buchanan (1978–90) maintained their political ascendency over lengthy periods. However, to describe Conservatives Stanfield and Buchanan as less liberal or more conservative than Liberals Fielding, Murray and Macdonald would be a deception, since the old-line parties pragmatically base their programs and platforms on electoral needs, not on ideology. Nova Scotians have historically been moderate and largely ‘small-c’ conservative voters.
The NDP's rise to power under Darrell Dexter in 2009 was all the more remarkable then. The party built its support incrementally over several decades, first in cosmopolitan Halifax and then among union-rich constituencies in rural Nova Scotia. Equally surprising was Dexter's defeat in 2013 at the hands of the Liberals under Stephen McNeil — and the sudden relegation of the NDP back to third-party status. The NDP loss marked the first time in over 100 years that an incumbent party hasn't won a second mandate.
Sir John Sparrow David Thompson is one of two Nova Scotian premiers to later become prime minister. He was elected premier in 1882, and served as prime minister from 1892 to 1894. Sir Charles Tupper, who championed Confederation as premier from 1864 to 1867, became prime minister in 1896. As federal Conservative leader Stanfield came close to leading the country, losing the 1972 national election to Pierre Trudeau by only two House of Commons seats. (See also: Nova Scotia Premiers.)
Judiciary
Judges of the senior court, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, are appointed by the federal Cabinet. In the early 1960s it was divided into trial and appeal divisions (the Court of Appeal is the highest court in the province). The Supreme Court also includes a Family Division. Most criminal business — although not the trial of the most serious offences — is dealt with in the Provincial Court, whose judges are appointed by the provincial government.
Federal Representation
As constitutionally provided in 1867, Nova Scotia's membership in the Senate is 10, but its representation in the House of Commons has fallen from 21 in the 1870s to 11 currently, with a corresponding decrease in clout in federal politics.
Public Finance
Until Confederation most government revenues came through import duties (see Customs and Excise), which could readily be adjusted as circumstances warranted. After 1867 transfer payments from Ottawa became one of the largest source of revenue. Not until the turn of the century did the province have its first million-dollar budget, and coal royalties ranked ahead of the federal subsidy as the chief producer of revenue. Principally because of the expanding coal and steel industry, the decade before the First World War was the only period in which provincial finances have been in a genuinely healthy condition since Confederation.
Since 1918 the province has almost always been strapped for money and, in common with the other have-not provinces, has had to make all sorts of demands upon Ottawa. Rising health care and public sector pension costs are among the province's largest expenses. Although various governments have narrowly balanced the provincial budget in recent decades, as of 2013 Nova Scotia owed a cumulative public debt of nearly $16 billion.
Although several major Canadian banks had their origin in Halifax, their head offices are now located in central Canada. Many large Canadian corporations do, however, locate their regional offices in Halifax.
Municipal Government
Local government is carried on in regional municipalities, cities, towns and rural municipalities. The largest local government is the Halifax Regional Municipality — a sprawling geographic area that includes the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, plus the entire rural and suburban area of Halifax County — the result of a contentious 1996 amalgamation.
Health
The Department of Health and Wellness administers an extensive program of family medicine, primary care, dental care, emergency services, mental health services, infection control, continuing care and e-health services. Public health insurance is provided to eligible residents for most hospital and medical services, as well as dental care for children and pharmacare for seniors. Medical and dental research is carried on primarily by the faculties of Medicine and Dentistry at Dalhousie University.
Education
The legislature has always refused to fund faith-based schools, even before Confederation. Education was originally provided via one system that permitted Catholic children to attend separate schools with Catholic teachers, effectively treating the schools as part of the public system, so long as they followed that system's course of study and observed its regulations. With the enlargement of Halifax's boundaries and the consolidation of schools resulting from declining enrolments, the separate system has been substantially impacted.
Of Nova Scotia’s eight school boards, one is a French-language board. The elementary level comprises primary and grades one to six; the secondary level comprises grades seven to nine in junior high, and 10 to 12 in senior high. The public school system is non-denominational.
Post-secondary education consists of independent, degree-granting universities and colleges, the Nova Scotia Community College and private trade schools. Institutions providing regular university programs in Halifax are Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, Mount Saint Vincent and the University of King’s College; outside Halifax, university programs are at Acadia in Wolfville, St Francis Xavier in Antigonish and Cape Breton University in Sydney. Université Sainte-Anne at Church Point is the only francophone university in the province.
Institutions providing specialized training in Halifax include NSCAD University (formerly the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) and The Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. Technical education for mariners is provided by the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute and by the Canadian Coast Guard College at Sydney.
The Nova Scotia Community College has 13 campuses around the province, and the Department of Education and Culture operates the provincial apprentice program.
Scottish culture is particularly vigorous in the eastern part of the province. St Francis Xavier offers courses in Celtic studies (see Celtic Languages), while the Gaelic College at St Anns, Cape Breton, fosters piping, singing, dancing and handicrafts, and annually hosts the Gaelic Mod, a festival of Highland folk arts. The Antigonish Highland Games, held every summer since the 1860s, are the oldest annual Highland Games in North America. The Halifax Scottish Festival and Highland Games is held annually in Halifax by The Scots: The North British Society.
Since the 1970s, the Nova Scotian government has taken steps to support artistic, and cultural forms and activities. In 1975, it established the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as an agency of the province responsible for the acquisition, preservation and exhibition of works of art. In 1988 the gallery moved to a restored premise in the historic Dominion Building in downtown Halifax. The Cultural Foundation was established three years later to accept, raise and administer funds for the promotion and encouragement of cultural affairs.
In 1991, the Centre for Craft and Design was established. It is a development centre for crafts- and design-related industries operating in a cultural, educational and economic context. It offers wholesale and retail product information to the trade and provides facilities for learning and display. Visual artists have organized "Studio Rally," an opportunity to visit studios of the province's many visual artists and craftspeople.
Nova Scotia is home to Symphony Nova Scotia, the only professional symphony orchestra east of Québec, and a spate of professional theatre companies, including Halifax's Neptune Theatre and Mermaid Theatre. Annual performing reviews and festivals are successfully attracting tourists and residents alike. These include the popular Cape Breton Summertime Revue, Jazz East, Musique Royale and the Scotia Festival of Music, a weeklong celebration of chamber music held each year in June.
Film production was boosted by the establishment the Nova Scotia Film Development Corp. in 1992. Popular musicians from Nova Scotia include Rita MacNeil, the Rankins, Ashley MacIsaac and the grunge rock band Sloan.
Communications
The newspaper circulating widely throughout the province is the morning Halifax Chronicle-Herald. The daily serving Cape Breton is the Cape Breton Post. There are other dailies in various communities and county weeklies abound.
The CBC provides radio service and there are a large number of private stations. Television is provided primarily by the CBC, CTV and Global.
Heritage Sites
Among Nova Scotia’s many national historic parks are a restored Louisbourg, a replica of Champlain's habitation Port-Royal and the Halifax Citadel.
The provincial government, through the Nova Scotia Museums Complex, has restored a number of structures that are representative of earlier eras, including: Uniacke House, home of Richard John Uniacke, near Halifax; Perkins's House, home of Simeon Perkins, at Liverpool; and "Clifton," home of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, at Windsor.
Land and Resources
Main RegionsThe Atlantic Upland is one of Nova Scotia’s chief physical features and is recognized by its five fragments, separated in places by extensive lowlands. Of these fragments, the largest is the Southern Upland, which occupies the southern and central part of the province. Starting at the rugged Atlantic coast, and marked by many inlets, islands, coves and bays, it rises to an altitude of 180 to 210 m in the interior. Its northern border constitutes the South Mountain. The second fragment is the North Mountain, a range of trap rock that runs parallel to the South Mountain for 190 km along the Bay of Fundy, from Cape Blomidon, on Minas Basin, to Brier Island.
Between the two mountain ranges lie the fertile valleys of the Annapolis and Cornwallis rivers, which together constitute the well-known apple-growing region of Nova Scotia. The third fragment consists of the flat-topped Cobequid Mountain, rising to 300 m and extending 120 km across Cumberland County, while the fourth has its beginnings in the eastern highlands of Pictou County. It extends in a long narrowing projection through Antigonish County to Cape George. The fifth fragment, on northern Cape Breton Island, is a wild, wooded plateau that peaks to a height of more than 550 m above sea level. It contributes to the highly scenic character of Cape Breton Highlands National Park, especially as viewed from the Cabot Trail, which runs through it. In contrast, the southern part of Cape Breton Island is largely lowland.
Geology
The deep drainage channels that cut through the uplands have exposed the roots of the mountains. The exposure has laid bare rocks that are among the oldest of the Earth's crust and are representative of most of the geological time scale. Peninsular Nova Scotia consists of Paleozoic cover pierced by a granite backbone that, because it is highly resistant to change, occupies the higher elevations.
The North Mountain resulted from volcanic action in Triassic times, and the Annapolis and Cornwallis valleys were carved out in the same period. Practically all the industrial minerals, including gypsum, limestone, sandstone, salt and barites, occur in rocks of the Mississippian age. The coal deposits of the province are to be found in the several groups of Pennsylvanian rocks, especially the Pictou, Stellarton and Morien groups.
Surface
Originally, most of the province was covered by forest, but little of the virgin forest remains, except in the plateau of northeast Cape Breton Island. Secondary growth has tended to be coniferous because of the acid soil and the slow growing season, but hardwoods continue to exist in sufficient abundance to produce a colourful display in the autumn. In swampy areas and rocky barrens, mosses, lichens, ferns, scrub heath and similar growths are common. Wild flowers grow in profusion, among which the mayflower, pitcher plant, white water lily and several varieties of violets stand out for their beauty.
Widely found throughout the province are herbaceous plants such as Clintonia, cranberries, blueberries and many species of goldenrod. The European cuckooflower has become common in the Annapolis Lowland, while the ragwort has spread over eastern Nova Scotia.
Roughly 29 per cent of Nova Scotia’s land is suitable for agricultural purposes. The best farming land is in the lowlands, where soils have developed on deep tills; the uplands usually have shallow, stony soils. The most extensive lowlands, and hence the best agricultural land, are along the Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait. The tremendously high tides of the Bay of Fundy have created large areas of marshland, which, by means of dykes begun in Acadian times, have been converted into valuable agricultural lands.
Water
Nova Scotia includes over 3,000 lakes, as well as hundreds of streams and small rivers. Because of the general direction of the watersheds, the rivers cannot be long, but with moderately heavy precipitation, normally no shortage of water occurs.
The province's largest lake, the 1,099 km2 Bras D’Or, was created when the sea invaded the area between the upland and lowland areas of Cape Breton. Saline and tideless, it is widely used for recreation. On the peninsula, the largest lake is Lake Rossignol.
Though short, the rivers have had considerable significance historically and economically. The Sackville and Shubenacadie, used extensively by Aboriginal peoples, were important in early transportation. Some, such as the Mersey, continue to play a significant role in lumber and pulpwood production, while others, such as the Margaree and St Mary's, have become celebrated as salmon streams. Several rivers have afforded the means to construct hydroelectric power plants, however small.
The high tides of the Bay of Fundy are a remarkable phenomenon. The bay, which is 270 km long and 80 km at its mouth, narrows to 56 km (its average width), where it divides into Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay. At high tide, the water is forced forward to reach a height over 16 m above low-tide level in its narrowest extremities. The high tides facilitate the loading of gypsum, lumber and the like by freighters, which at low tide rest on mud flats.
Climate
Weather systems moving eastward from the interior of the continent dominate the province's weather. These systems often react with low-pressure systems coming from the south and moving northeastwardly along the coast, and the whole is affected by the proximity of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream. Generally the water has a moderating influence on the climate, particularly along the Atlantic coast, where the average winter temperatures range from 0 to -15°C, while the summers are typically 20 to 25°C.
The influence of the sea is felt in other ways. Ice brought down by the Labrador Current leads to a late spring marked by cold winds, rain and mist. In summer, especially in June and July, the mingling of the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current produces a great deal of sea fog, which often drifts over the coastal areas.
The coastal areas are both milder and wetter than the rest of the province. Yearly rainfall averages over 1,000 mm, and snowfall over 200 cm.
Conservation
The province’s conservation efforts are directed through the Department of Natural Resources. This department oversees the development, management, conservation and protection of energy, forest, minerals, parks, protected areas and wildlife resources.
Much of the department’s protection efforts are directed toward forests. The department is continually improving forest management practices, and from its Forest Protection headquarters at Shubenacadie, fire and pest management are coordinated. To preserve and promote the inland salmon and trout fisheries, the province manages water control, restocking of lakes and research. Under the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, passed in 2007 and amended in 2012, the department hopes to protect 12 per cent of Nova Scotia’s landmass by 2015.
The provincial park system comprises over 300 provincial parks and reserves, but most of them are small in size. The largest protected areas are the National Parks (Cape Breton Highlands, Kejimkujik and Sable Island Reserve), the game sanctuaries and Tobeatic Wildlife Management Area.
People
Urban CentresAs in the rest of Canada, Nova Scotia has experienced a marked shift from rural to urban living since Confederation. However, its rural population remains relatively high at 43 per cent of the total population (2011).
Halifax is both the capital and the largest urban centre in the province. In 2011, it had a population of 390,328, or roughly 42 per cent of the provincial population. The next most-populous centres range in size from just under 20,000 to about 46,000 and include Sydney, Truro, New Glasgow and Glace Bay. The remainder of the province’s communities have populations under 15,000.
Labour Force
In 2013, there were 453,800 employed people in Nova Scotia. Despite natural resources being the principal driver of the provincial economy, 81 per cent of the employed population in 2013 worked in the service sector. Within this sector, the trades, health care and social assistance, and education were the top employers.Going back as far as the mid-1970s, Nova Scotia has consistently had an unemployment rate higher than the national average. In 2012, the unemployment rate was nine per cent (compared to 7.2 per cent nationally), making it among the highest in the country.
Language and Ethnicity
In the 2006 census, the most-reported ethnic origins were Canadian, Scottish, English, Irish and French. The visible minority population was relatively small — four per cent of the total population — with black, Arab and Chinese people making up the three largest communities within this group.
The vast majority of the population (92 per cent) reported English as their mother tongue, while those reporting French and those reporting a non-official language were almost equal — 3.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. The Acadian and francophone populations are concentrated in Halifax, Digby and Yarmouth on the mainland, and in Inverness and Richmond counties on Cape Breton Island. Legislation enacted in 1981 granted Acadians the right to receive education in their first language.
Religion
As in other parts of the country, the population of Nova Scotia is overwhelmingly Christian, with 75 per cent of the population identifying with a Christian denomination in 2011. Following Christianity, the most reported religions were Islam (0.9 per cent), Buddhism, (0.2 per cent) and Judaism (0.2 per cent). Those reporting no religious affiliation accounted for 21 per cent of the population.
History
Aboriginal SettlementThe first peoples in what is now Nova Scotia were the Mi'kmaq, who belonged to a wider coalition known as the Wabanaki Confederacy, whose members were in turn part of the Algonquin-language family in eastern North America. The Mi'kmaq presence can be traced as far back as 10,000 years. They were hunters and traders and, because of their proximity to the ocean, skilled saltwater fishers. When the first Europeans arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries, Mi'kmaq territory stretched across all of modern-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, most of New Brunswick and westward into the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec — an area known as Mi'kma'ki. The Mi'kmaq established better relations with the French settlers than with the English.
European Exploration and Settlement
Long before John Cabot made landfall in 1497 (possibly on Cape Breton Island), Norse adventurers may have reached Nova Scotia. Scores of other explorers and fishermen plied its coasts before Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain established Port-Royal in 1605 — the first agricultural settlement by Europeans in Canada, and the beginnings of the French colony of Acadia.
In 1621 King James I of England named the same territory New Scotland (or Nova Scotia, as it was called in its Latin charter) and granted the land to the Scottish colonizer Sir William Alexander. In the 1620s, the Scots established two settlements, but both were unsuccessful. Meanwhile a small but steady stream of immigrants continued to arrive from France for a new life in Acadia.
Armed conflict ensued between the French and British, and throughout the 17th century Acadia was handed back and forth between the European powers. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht finally put an end to Acadia, transferring the colony — but not ÃŽle Royale (Cape Breton Island) or ÃŽle Saint-Jean (PEI) — to Britain. Aside from maintaining a small garrison at Port Royal, renamed Annapolis Royal, the British did little with Nova Scotia until 1749, when Halifax was founded as a military town and naval base on the shores of what the Mi'kmaq called the "Great Harbour." Halifax's purpose was to balance out the French military presence at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton.
The Seven Years War between France and Britain brought great change to Nova Scotia. British military officials feared the colony's large Roman Catholic Acadian population — despite its expressions of neutrality — would side with the French during the war. The result, starting in 1755, was the Acadian Expulsion, in which British forces rounded up more than 6,000 Acadian men, women and children, and dispersed them on ships to various American colonies. In 1758, as these traumatic deportations were still under way, Louisbourg fell to the British, precipitating the Conquest of Canada in 1760, and the ceding to Britain of Cape Breton Island in the Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1763.
Development
In peacetime, Nova Scotia prospered, with settlers arriving from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. Loyalists, both white and black, as well as former black slaves, also arrived following the American Revolution. During the early part of the 19th century the colony grew as a fish exporting, lumbering and shipbuilding centre, and Halifax emerged as an important merchant hub and a base for British privateering captains.
Starting in 1864 the Confederation question left a mark on the province. Nova Scotia's economy was closely tied, as were many families, to the New England states. The province’s prosperity relied on seaborne trade south to the United States and east across the Atlantic, and many did not relish the idea of setting up new economic and political links with the Province of Canada, or with a remote interior further west. Despite these fears the colony became one of the four founding provinces of the new Dominion of Canada in 1867; however, a strong anti-Confederate movement existed for many years, with some Nova Scotians flying flags at half-mast on 1 July.
In the 20th century the First World War stimulated the provincial economy with an increased demand for iron, steel, fish and lumber. The war also brought disaster in the form of the Halifax Explosion; and the war's end brought with it recession, which lasted for several years. Nova Scotia enjoyed good economic times again during the Second World War. Halifax became one of the major North American ports for the gathering of trans-Atlantic convoys, which carried munitions and other wartime supplies to Western Europe.
Since the mid-1950s Nova Scotia has struggled financially, and economic development has been one of the primary concerns for provincial politicians. The fishing industry — especially lobster and shellfish exports — has remained a mainstay of the economy, sustaining many coastal communities even through the collapse of cod and other groundfish stocks in the 1990s.
As manufacturing began its steady decline in the 1950s, coal mining and steel making continued in Cape Breton with the help of massive government subsidies, until the last coal mine was shut down in 2001. Its closure ended a way of life and left the Sydney Tar Ponds — the result of decades of coke oven effluent — as the steel mill's environmental legacy. In an effort to contain the contaminants, the waste was eventually buried, and Open Hearth Park opened on the site of the ponds in 2013.
Coal was also mined on the Nova Scotia mainland starting in the 19th century, and certain strip mining operations continue to this day. The Springhill mine was the site of three deadly disasters, the most famous being the 1958 underground earthquake, which trapped 174 miners and became an international news spectacle.
Offshore oil and natural gas production began in 1992, bringing new revenues and opportunities to the province, but was not the economic windfall many had hoped for. Economic uncertainty continues in the 21st century, with pulp and paper mills across the province closing down and many rural communities in decline as people move to the Halifax area for jobs primarily in government, universities, the burgeoning aerospace sector and the military. Since 2011, great hopes have been pinned on the opportunities that might arise from the awarding of a long-term contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct 21 new combat ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. It is the largest military procurement in Canadian history.
Economy
AgricultureWhile the Mi’kmaq relied on hunting for their food, fishing captains in the early 16th century are believed to have cultivated vegetable gardens to feed their crews. At the same time, the French were growing grain at Port-Royal and in 1609 they erected the first water-powered gristmill in North America. To secure salt for curing fish, they also built dykes along tidal marshes and later used them to begin dykeland agriculture. Since the 1950s, the Department of Agriculture has preserved, extended and rebuilt this system of dykes.
About three per cent of Nova Scotia’s land, or 181,915 ha, is currently used for agriculture. The largest cultivated areas are found in the Annapolis Valley and in some parts of northern Nova Scotia. In 2011, the average farm size was 261 acres, compared to the national average of 778. Gross farm receipts in 2010 were $594.9 million, of which poultry and dairy farms accounted for 46 per cent.
The county fair is an important institution, and the one at Windsor, established in 1765, is the oldest of its type in North America.
Mining
Historically by far the most important mineral in Nova Scotia is coal. The rapid increase in coal production and the development of the steel industry were primarily responsible for the province's prosperity in the early 20th century. After the Second World War conditions in the coal areas were often troubled, and in the late 1950s the market contracted greatly in the face of competition from petroleum and natural gas. Production declined from about 6.6 million tonnes in 1950 to about 2 million in 1971.
Coal made a striking comeback in the 1990s. Following large increases in petroleum prices the province was determined to reduce dependency on foreign oil by replacing it with thermal coal. Production in 1999 amounted to over 1.5 million tonnes worth more than $100 million. While the last Cape Breton coal mine closed in 2001, there are two coal strip mining operations in the province, one in Stellarton and the other Point Aconi.
Other minerals mined in Nova Scotia include gypsum, salt, limestone and sand.
See Coal Mining.
Energy
Before 1973 the generation of electric energy was in the hands of the Nova Scotia Power Commission, a government agency established in 1919, and the Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, a private utility. In 1973 they were united in a crown corporation, the Nova Scotia Power Corp. The corporation was privatized in 1992 and is now an incorporated entity.
In 1950 about 70 per cent of the province's energy needs were met by hydroelectric power and indigenous coal. Convinced that cheap oil would continue to be available and that nuclear energy would be less expensive than that derived from coal, governments allowed a situation to develop in which, by 1978, over 70 per cent of the electricity was produced from oil. Nova Scotia had the most expensive energy in Canada because of major increases in oil costs, with the exception of PEI.
In 1979 the Energy Planning Board was established under the new Department of Mines and Energy to devise an energy strategy. This strategy aimed to develop the few remaining hydroelectric opportunities, to open new coal mines and expand existing ones so as to permit oil-fired generating plants to be phased out. As a part of these efforts the Annapolis River tidal plant was completed in 1984. It was the first tidal plant in North America, using the largest turbine ever built for hydroelectric development, and remains the only commercial tidal generating plant in North America Over 30 years later, the strategy to move away from oil-fired generating plants has been successful: in 2012, less than two per cent of the province’s electricity generation came from oil, while 59 per cent came from coal; 21 per cent from natural gas; and 18 per cent from renewable sources such as wind, tidal and hydro. The province’s next challenge is to phase out coal as an energy source, as it is not environmentally or economically sustainable. Nova Scotia is doing this gradually — in previous years the amount of energy produced from coal was as high as 80 per cent.
Offshore drilling for oil and natural gas began in the late 1960s, with the province’s first offshore discovery occurring at Sable Island in 1971. Canada’s first offshore project — Cohasset-Panuke — began production in 1992 (ending in 1999). More discoveries led to the first offshore oil and gas legislation in 1982. In March of that year, Premier John Buchanan signed a 42-year agreement with the federal government giving Nova Scotia the same benefits from its offshore resources that Alberta receives from its land-based oil and gas.
There is currently one offshore project in operation—the Sable Offshore Energy Project—while a second, the Deep Panuke Offshore Gas Development Project, began production in 2013.
Forestry
Nova Scotia has just over 4 million ha of forest, accounting for 79 per cent of its total land area. This resource has always been important in Nova Scotia's economy (see Timber Trade History). In the 19th century, for example, much of the province’s prosperity came from wooden ships and the lumber they carried overseas.
The most common softwood is spruce. Balsam fir is used for pulpwood and Christmas trees. The most important commercial hardwoods are red maple, sugar maple and yellow birch. Sugar maple also forms the basis of an industry for woodlot owners, especially in the north, through the production of maple syrup and allied products.
Fisheries
In terms of landed value (i.e., catch brought ashore), Nova Scotia is a leader among Atlantic coast fisheries. In 2012, for example, it accounted for about 47 per cent ($77 million) of the total landed value of fish caught along the Atlantic Ocean.
Salt and dried fish for export to Latin America was once the staple of the market, but quick-frozen and filleted fishdominate.
Since the Second World War, schooners with dories have given way to draggers that fish the entire year. More valuable than groundfish such as haddock and cod are molluscs and crustaceans such as scallops and lobsters. The groundfish are caught both by offshore trawlers and draggers, and by inshore boats including long-liners. Lobsters are taken largely inshore by Cape Island boats; scallops by both offshore and inshore draggers; herring by seiners.
See History of Commercial Fisheries.
Industry
Manufacturing industries do not have a large presence in Nova Scotia. For example, in 2013, the province accounted for less than two per cent of Canada’s manufacturing sales. What products the province does manufacture, however, are namely food, wood and plastics.
Transportation
In early Nova Scotia the sea was the only highway. In the late 1760s, road building began. Politics in the latter 19th century were focused on the railway, with virtually the province’s entire railway being built between 1854 and 1914.
Due to its ice-free, deep-water harbour located a full day closer to Europe than its major American East Coast competitors, the port of Halifax maintains its competitive edge in the international shipping business. Halifax is one of the largest natural harbours in the world and has one of the largest container ports in Canada.
VIA Rail offers passenger service with stations in Halifax, Amherst, Springhill Junction and Truro. Seagoing car ferries connect southwestern Nova Scotia with New England (via Yarmouth to Bar Harbor, Maine, and via Yarmouth to Portland, Maine) and with New Brunswick (via Digby to Saint John). In addition, car ferries operate from the province to Newfoundland (via North Sydney to Port-aux-Basques, and via North Sydney to Argentia) and to PEI (via Caribou to Wood Islands).
Halifax International Airport, the seventh busiest in Canada and the Atlantic regional hub, enjoys service to major national and international points by major Canadian carriers. Other airports include the Sydney Airport in Cape Breton and Yarmouth International Airport.
Government and Politics
In October 1758 the first legislative assembly in Britain’s North American colonies met in Halifax, and parliamentary government was born in what would become Canada. Yet perhaps Nova Scotia's greatest contribution to Canadian democracy was the movement for Responsible Government, which got underway in earnest in 1836 when — mainly through the efforts of political reformer Joseph Howe and his newspaper The Novascotian — a majority of reform-minded assemblymen was elected to the legislature. Their struggle was against a Halifax oligarchy that dominated the business, political and church life of the province in its own interest, much like the Family Compact in Upper Canada; but what they wanted in practice was for the members of the Executive Council (Cabinet) to be responsible to the elected legislature, not to the appointed colonial governor.The Reformers finally achieved success when, in the election of 1847, they won a seven-seat majority. In February 1848 James B. Uniacke became premier, with Howe acting as provincial secretary, together forming the first ministry operating under responsible government in British North America. Howe eventually became premier and also a federal Cabinet minister, despite having also led the movement to oppose Nova Scotia's entry into Confederation. (See also Nova Scotia and Confederation.)
Provincial Government
Legally, executive power in Nova Scotia is vested in the lieutenant-governor; practically, however, it is exercised by the Executive Council or Cabinet, responsible to a 51-member legislature. Universal suffrage for males and females over 21 came into effect in 1920; the voting age was reduced to 19 in 1970 and to 18 in 1973.
The first genuine political parties appeared in the election of 1836 when the Tories (Conservatives) battled the Reformers (Liberals), who had come into existence almost overnight under the guidance of Joseph Howe. Until 1867 the parties contended fairly equally, but the Confederation issue upset the rough balance in favour of the anti-Confederates (Liberals). Up until 1956, the Conservatives won only four elections and were in office only 13 of the 89 years. Since the Second World War, however, a lessening in traditional voting within the Liberal Party and the influence of Conservative Premier Robert Stanfield combined to narrow differences in electoral strength and to make the parties genuinely competitive. In the 21st century the New Democratic Party has also grown in popularity, forming a breakthrough majority government —the first NDP government east of Ontario — in 2009.
It has been very difficult to supplant established Nova Scotian premiers. W.S. Fielding (premier 1884–96), George Murray (1896–1923 — an astonishing 27 years in power), Angus L. Macdonald (1933–40 and 1945–54), Stanfield (1956–67) and John Buchanan (1978–90) maintained their political ascendency over lengthy periods. However, to describe Conservatives Stanfield and Buchanan as less liberal or more conservative than Liberals Fielding, Murray and Macdonald would be a deception, since the old-line parties pragmatically base their programs and platforms on electoral needs, not on ideology. Nova Scotians have historically been moderate and largely ‘small-c’ conservative voters.
The NDP's rise to power under Darrell Dexter in 2009 was all the more remarkable then. The party built its support incrementally over several decades, first in cosmopolitan Halifax and then among union-rich constituencies in rural Nova Scotia. Equally surprising was Dexter's defeat in 2013 at the hands of the Liberals under Stephen McNeil — and the sudden relegation of the NDP back to third-party status. The NDP loss marked the first time in over 100 years that an incumbent party hasn't won a second mandate.
Sir John Sparrow David Thompson is one of two Nova Scotian premiers to later become prime minister. He was elected premier in 1882, and served as prime minister from 1892 to 1894. Sir Charles Tupper, who championed Confederation as premier from 1864 to 1867, became prime minister in 1896. As federal Conservative leader Stanfield came close to leading the country, losing the 1972 national election to Pierre Trudeau by only two House of Commons seats. (See also: Nova Scotia Premiers.)
Judiciary
Judges of the senior court, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, are appointed by the federal Cabinet. In the early 1960s it was divided into trial and appeal divisions (the Court of Appeal is the highest court in the province). The Supreme Court also includes a Family Division. Most criminal business — although not the trial of the most serious offences — is dealt with in the Provincial Court, whose judges are appointed by the provincial government.
Federal Representation
As constitutionally provided in 1867, Nova Scotia's membership in the Senate is 10, but its representation in the House of Commons has fallen from 21 in the 1870s to 11 currently, with a corresponding decrease in clout in federal politics.
Public Finance
Until Confederation most government revenues came through import duties (see Customs and Excise), which could readily be adjusted as circumstances warranted. After 1867 transfer payments from Ottawa became one of the largest source of revenue. Not until the turn of the century did the province have its first million-dollar budget, and coal royalties ranked ahead of the federal subsidy as the chief producer of revenue. Principally because of the expanding coal and steel industry, the decade before the First World War was the only period in which provincial finances have been in a genuinely healthy condition since Confederation.
Since 1918 the province has almost always been strapped for money and, in common with the other have-not provinces, has had to make all sorts of demands upon Ottawa. Rising health care and public sector pension costs are among the province's largest expenses. Although various governments have narrowly balanced the provincial budget in recent decades, as of 2013 Nova Scotia owed a cumulative public debt of nearly $16 billion.
Although several major Canadian banks had their origin in Halifax, their head offices are now located in central Canada. Many large Canadian corporations do, however, locate their regional offices in Halifax.
Municipal Government
Local government is carried on in regional municipalities, cities, towns and rural municipalities. The largest local government is the Halifax Regional Municipality — a sprawling geographic area that includes the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, plus the entire rural and suburban area of Halifax County — the result of a contentious 1996 amalgamation.
Health
The Department of Health and Wellness administers an extensive program of family medicine, primary care, dental care, emergency services, mental health services, infection control, continuing care and e-health services. Public health insurance is provided to eligible residents for most hospital and medical services, as well as dental care for children and pharmacare for seniors. Medical and dental research is carried on primarily by the faculties of Medicine and Dentistry at Dalhousie University.
Education
The legislature has always refused to fund faith-based schools, even before Confederation. Education was originally provided via one system that permitted Catholic children to attend separate schools with Catholic teachers, effectively treating the schools as part of the public system, so long as they followed that system's course of study and observed its regulations. With the enlargement of Halifax's boundaries and the consolidation of schools resulting from declining enrolments, the separate system has been substantially impacted.
Of Nova Scotia’s eight school boards, one is a French-language board. The elementary level comprises primary and grades one to six; the secondary level comprises grades seven to nine in junior high, and 10 to 12 in senior high. The public school system is non-denominational.
Post-secondary education consists of independent, degree-granting universities and colleges, the Nova Scotia Community College and private trade schools. Institutions providing regular university programs in Halifax are Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, Mount Saint Vincent and the University of King’s College; outside Halifax, university programs are at Acadia in Wolfville, St Francis Xavier in Antigonish and Cape Breton University in Sydney. Université Sainte-Anne at Church Point is the only francophone university in the province.
Institutions providing specialized training in Halifax include NSCAD University (formerly the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) and The Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. Technical education for mariners is provided by the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute and by the Canadian Coast Guard College at Sydney.
The Nova Scotia Community College has 13 campuses around the province, and the Department of Education and Culture operates the provincial apprentice program.
Cultural Life
ArtsScottish culture is particularly vigorous in the eastern part of the province. St Francis Xavier offers courses in Celtic studies (see Celtic Languages), while the Gaelic College at St Anns, Cape Breton, fosters piping, singing, dancing and handicrafts, and annually hosts the Gaelic Mod, a festival of Highland folk arts. The Antigonish Highland Games, held every summer since the 1860s, are the oldest annual Highland Games in North America. The Halifax Scottish Festival and Highland Games is held annually in Halifax by The Scots: The North British Society.
Since the 1970s, the Nova Scotian government has taken steps to support artistic, and cultural forms and activities. In 1975, it established the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as an agency of the province responsible for the acquisition, preservation and exhibition of works of art. In 1988 the gallery moved to a restored premise in the historic Dominion Building in downtown Halifax. The Cultural Foundation was established three years later to accept, raise and administer funds for the promotion and encouragement of cultural affairs.
In 1991, the Centre for Craft and Design was established. It is a development centre for crafts- and design-related industries operating in a cultural, educational and economic context. It offers wholesale and retail product information to the trade and provides facilities for learning and display. Visual artists have organized "Studio Rally," an opportunity to visit studios of the province's many visual artists and craftspeople.
Nova Scotia is home to Symphony Nova Scotia, the only professional symphony orchestra east of Québec, and a spate of professional theatre companies, including Halifax's Neptune Theatre and Mermaid Theatre. Annual performing reviews and festivals are successfully attracting tourists and residents alike. These include the popular Cape Breton Summertime Revue, Jazz East, Musique Royale and the Scotia Festival of Music, a weeklong celebration of chamber music held each year in June.
Film production was boosted by the establishment the Nova Scotia Film Development Corp. in 1992. Popular musicians from Nova Scotia include Rita MacNeil, the Rankins, Ashley MacIsaac and the grunge rock band Sloan.
Communications
The newspaper circulating widely throughout the province is the morning Halifax Chronicle-Herald. The daily serving Cape Breton is the Cape Breton Post. There are other dailies in various communities and county weeklies abound.
The CBC provides radio service and there are a large number of private stations. Television is provided primarily by the CBC, CTV and Global.
Heritage Sites
Among Nova Scotia’s many national historic parks are a restored Louisbourg, a replica of Champlain's habitation Port-Royal and the Halifax Citadel.
The provincial government, through the Nova Scotia Museums Complex, has restored a number of structures that are representative of earlier eras, including: Uniacke House, home of Richard John Uniacke, near Halifax; Perkins's House, home of Simeon Perkins, at Liverpool; and "Clifton," home of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, at Windsor.
Suggested Reading
- J. Murray Beck, The Government of Nova Scotia (1957) and The Evolution of Municipal Government in Nova Scotia, 1749–73 (1973); J.B. Brebner, New England's Outpost (1927) and The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia (1937); D. Campbell and R.A. MacLean, Beyond the Atlantic Roar (1974); G.G. Campbell, The History of Nova Scotia (1949); R.E. George, A Leader and a Laggard (1970); J.F. Graham, Fiscal Adjustment and Economic Development: A Case Study of Nova Scotia (1963); J. Leefe and P. McCreath, History of Early Nova Scotia (1982); W.S. MacNutt, The Atlantic Province (1965); B. Moody, The Acadians (1981); B. Murdoch, A History of Nova Scotia or Acadie, 3 vols (1865, 1866, 1867); T.H. Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North (1948).
Links to other sites
- Nova ScotiaThe official website of the Government of Nova Scotia.
- Nova Scotia MuseumThe website for the Nova Scotia Museum.
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W. S. Fielding and the Repeal Elections of 1886 and 1887 in Nova ScotiaAn analysis of major issues that fueled the repeal movement that tried to disengage Nova Scotia from Confederation. From the journal Acadiensis.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nova-scotia/
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BLOGGED:
Seniors dying/burial/living in poverty $$$- IN CANADA-NOVA SCOTIA- Don't be afraid- God loves us old sinners- getting prepared-write ur own obit- find out $$$ 4 burial 4 poor folks/Women- ur rights/Pensions- Income- LIVING IN POVERTY HELP- One Billion Rising- girls and women matter Nova Scotia and Canada
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/09/seniors-dyingburialliving-in-poverty-in.html
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BLOGGED:Seniors of Nova Scotia and Canada-u kick the bucket who does family call Canada?/Dying suddenly what about ur pets?/bagged tagged and burnt- getcha will done babe/Nova Scotia Gov./Federal Gov/Blogs/how 2 make it easy with wills if u die suddenly vs no will /When u die-what happens 2 ur websites/ stories and humour/4 those u give a sheeet about/FUN-GAMES AND HUMOUR- HEY WE'RE OLD
The Death of the Funeral Business
The wheels are coming off the funeral business as God takes a backseat to online memorials, Facebook messages and “life celebrations.” How we’re blurring the line between life and the grave.Over the summer, my 98-year-old Aunt Elizabeth passed away, after a long, full life.In the wake (heh) of her memorial service, I got a letter from her daughter, my cousin Stephanie. It had a chart of our family’s two burial plots at Hillside Cemetery in Roslyn, showing who’s interred in which graves, and … well, let me just quote:The original cemetery contract entitles one burial to be made in each grave without additional charge. … This is called the “first right.” But if someone decides to be buried in one of the seven graves that have never yet been opened, and wants to be sure that the burial will be deep enough to allow for a second later burial in the same grave, he/she must pay a fee (currently just under $2,500) to reserve the “second right” to that grave. If the second right is not paid for at the time of the first burial, there will not be room for a second burial in the grave. It follows that if everyone who eventually uses those graves pays up front for the “second right,” the two lots can accommodate 16 more burials. On the other hand, if no one who eventually uses those graves pays for the second right, the two lots will accommodate only nine more burials.It went on from there.
Mine is a family that takes six months to decide who’ll host the annual Christmas Eve party. The prospect of the dozens of us cousins jockeying for eternal occupancy of those remaining grave sites (“There are also guidelines about burials of spouses of family members”) is dizzying. And frankly, the chances of any of us ponying up $2,500 at our time of death to altruistically save the space atop us are dim. When it comes to that, I love my relatives, but I’d have a hard time opting for the open slot above Aunt Phyllis, who was a wonderful woman but worried ceaselessly about my weight.Luckily, I don’t envision any grand family smackdowns over the vacant graves. I plan to be cremated. So do my siblings and husband. Forty-three percent of Americans who died last year were burned instead of buried—up from 24 percent in 1998. That’s a staggering rise in the course of just 15 years. (The figure was under five percent as recently as 1972.) By 2017, the Cremation Association of North America predicts, half of us will be consumed by flames. In Britain, three-quarters of the dead already are.Much of the impetus for this is economic: A traditional American funeral costs $8,300 (not counting plot), vs. $1,400 for cremation (with urn and no service). But what we do with ourselves when we die isn’t just a matter of money, and funerals aren’t just about disposal of the dead. They’re rituals we perform in order to adjust to the loss of a loved one, and to place that loss within a larger framework that gives meaning to the life that’s gone.For Americans, religion once provided that framework. The rise in cremation dovetails neatly with the increase in those of us who have no religious affiliation—now one-fifth, the highest percentage ever, according to a recent Pew Research poll. We’re not nearly as concerned with the hereafter as we used to be. The number of Americans who don’t believe Christ rose from the dead jumped by 13 percent in a single year from 2012 to 2013.A societal changeover from burial to cremation is momentous for our culture. It signals a cataclysmic shift in how we think about our bodies and ourselves. If we’re no longer preserving our remains for the glorious moment when the trumpet blares the Resurrection, does it matter what we do with them? What is the meaning of life, and death, once religion goes?When I die just show clips of me and shut the f up. —Tweet from comedian Albert Brooks, 2013
My mom died while I was in my early 20s; my dad, Bill, lived on for another quarter-century. But it wasn’t until he died and I was going through his things that I found a photo of my mother taken for Dress-Down Day at North Penn High, where she’d taught math. She’s in front of a blackboard, wearing big round glasses and a t-shirt showing the Pythagorean theorem. On the back of the photo, she wrote:Bill doesn’t like this picture but I love it. It’s my favorite “Marcie, the teacher” picture. I would like my grandchildren (?) to have copies one day.Mom got her wish; her grandkids all have copies of that photo, and since they never knew her, it’s precisely how they “remember” her. Contemporary funerals are like that picture—they’re not about life after death, but about how we want to be remembered, or at least (since the dead can’t control the living) how our loved ones want us to be.That explains why the Verizon guy is tramping across the handsome floral carpet in the mirror-walled front lobby of the Pennsylvania Burial Co. “We’re in a traditional area,” says fourth-generation funeral director Peter Jacovini, by which he means South Philly, and more specifically the funeral-home-dense stretch of South Broad Street between Wharton and Oregon. The Pennsylvania Burial Co., at Broad and Reed, is built like—well, a vault. “The walls are so thick that we can’t get wi-fi in our parlors,” says Peter’s cousin, Victor Baldi III—also a fourth-generation funeral director, at the adjacent Baldi Funeral Home. So this bastion of tradition, this crystal-and-marble temple, is putting in more routers, for beaming out videos.“Video makes it a life celebration,” explains Victor, a handsome, beefy Italian guy. And who doesn’t like to celebrate?“People have so many pictures now—on their laptops, their phones,” adds Peter, who’s more ascetic in appearance. The home’s chapels have been fitted with discreet flat-screen TVs, for showing collages and tributes; prayer cards bear photos of the deceased instead of images of Christ. Victor just had a family that wanted to livestream a funeral service overseas.The cousins’ old-school business is making other concessions to changing tastes. They’re about to go, um, live with a new website that’s “more interactive and friendlier,” says Victor. “Families can have a memorial online. Visitors can add messages and condolences.” Granted, such newfangled stuff has to be broached delicately here in traditional South Philly. “Some people don’t want their pictures online,” says Victor. But he and Peter recently hired their first-ever female staffer, a grief counselor. (“She’s been well received,” Peter says, sounding a little surprised.)It’s all part of the biggest trend in funerals: personalization. Taking a cue from Oprah, who reportedly has planned her own funeral, contemporary mourners are trying to make the worn outlines of ritual more authentic and meaningful. We’re singing “My Heart Will Go On” at services, and showing montages of our deceased’s school days, weddings, grandkids. We’re having their cremains shot into space, made into diamonds and interred in coral reefs. The newest disposal method: dissolving the body via alkaline hydrolysis. The resultant liquid washes right down the drain.Rituals evolve. What stays constant is our need for them, for some way to make sense of the hole in the social fabric that death creates. “While the types of services we offer are changing, our job has remained the same,” say Peter. “People always told stories. We are always remembering who the people were.”For Victor and Peter’s clients, remembrance is still intimately tied up, mostly, with the body; cremations sans services are still only six percent of their business. “We can be the nicest guys in the world,” says Victor, “but if Mom or Dad doesn’t look good in the casket …
It really helps the family if the deceased looks peaceful.” This explains the pillowy satin linings of the coffins in their Casket Room, where models range from a $650 bare-bones box to a $17,950 bronze number so gorgeous that I’m tempted to climb in.There’s no sense having a coffin that nice unless people see it—and the body inside it. Almost all of Peter and Victor’s funerals are open-casket. Peter says, “We have a gentleman who does the embalming”—a process in which the deceased is drenched in disinfectant and germicide, the eyes and jaw are fastened shut, blood is drained, the insides of organs are suctioned out, and makeup is used to restore a lifelike look to the corpse.The embalming, the cosmetics, the cozy casket confines—all are meant to create a therapeutic “memory image” of the deceased that gives mourners closure. Yet even in South Philly, the business is changing. That’s partly due to the recession; Peter and Victor offer more choices now at the low end of the price scale, and a wall of sample urns in the Casket Room for those opting to cremate. On the second floor is a Buddhist chapel, with a special exhaust system to handle the incense monks burn at their ceremonies. “We’re 80 percent Catholic, 15 percent Buddhist and five percent other,” Victor says as he ushers me into this exotic red-and-gold sanctuary.Statewide, the number of licensed funeral directors dropped by almost 19 percent from 2001 to 2011. Half a dozen funeral homes in Philadelphia have closed in recent years. “Urban homes have their own challenges,” says John Eirkson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association. “Parking is harder. Getting around is harder. There are tax issues. Everything is compounded when you’re in the city.” The funeral-home mergers-and-acquisitions consolidation that started out West is hitting the East Coast now. South Philly, once solidly white, Catholic and Italian, today is nearly half black, Asian and Hispanic. And Eirkson has seen dramatic changes in mortuary-school enrollment. “Classes used to be made up of men from funeral-home families,” he says. “Now, women make up 60 percent or more, and the majority aren’t affiliated with funeral-home families.” Small family-owned homes, Eirkson says, “have to adapt—or die.”But the Pennsylvania Burial Co. is plenty lively. Besides the Verizon guy, drivers and deliverymen and clients come and go. While we talk, Peter and Victor keep an eye through the open front door on their parking lot across the street, which they’re having repaved. The busyness is a reminder that at the heart of what they’re selling is distraction: Do you want this casket or that? What outfit would you like your deceased to wear? In a time of intense emotional distress, they lay out choices that give us the illusion, at least, of control over something we can’t control. And they do so in a setting whose grandeur—marble, mirrors, crystal, plush rugs—offers tribute to our loss in a solemn, satisfying way. We pay them, like the ferryman Charon, to row our dead from this world to the next. It’s an errand too overwhelming for us to face alone.
Way back in 1970, a funeral-industry publication predicted that before long, American funeral traditions would collapse completely, and services would take place without the presence of a body. This has proven prescient: Today, more and more Americans opt for corpse-free “memorial services” instead of funerals. We’ve gone from celebrating Christ’s triumph over the grave to chuckling at poor Uncle Fred’s golf game.It’s understandable. The reality is harsh. We dispose of our dead because we have no choice: Eventually they stink, and they spread disease. Down through the ages, various means of dealing with dead bodies evolved: We’ve covered them with stones, buried them, floated them away, engulfed them in flames, let birds pick them apart. What remains after that is picked apart by people like Janet Monge, who, unlike most of us, will miss dead bodies when they’re gone.“Most of archaeology is tombs,” says Janet, between bites of a cheesesteak. She’s an anthropology prof at Penn and the Curator and Keeper of Skeletal Collections at its museum—the guardian of the bones. There’s nothing grim or creepy about her, though, as we share lunch in her museum’s sun-drenched cafe. A native of West Philly, she’s plainspoken and wry, with deep-set eyes and a mass of wiry gray hair.“Anthropologists use burial context to get to the identity of a people,” she explains. “There are a limited number of disposal methods, but many variations. You can have the body lying straight in the grave, or in fetal position, or on its side, like Muslims. It can be sitting down, standing up, with the hands folded or extended. … What objects are associated with them? What are they wearing? We try to pierce through and extract the minute differences.” What’s useful about graves is that they’re covered over, so the contents are protected. Cremation, though—“It’s a glimpse,” says Janet, “but it doesn’t allow us to do much study.”The earliest bones in her collection are from the Middle East and were interred 25,000 years ago. “I think of them as individuals,” she says of the remains she catalogs. “They have stories to tell. Not the same as a human story, but a pretty elaborate one.”Royal tombs tend to be fanciest. In Ancient Egypt, that meant bigger monuments, more elaborate death scrolls, better mummification, nicer linens. Other classes emulated as much as they could afford. “We still have this attempt to mimic extravagance in burials,” Janet notes. “How many flowers? How big a casket?” What has changed is our acceptance of death: “There’s an expectation now that biomedicine will cure everything. We don’t really think we’re going to die.”Back when the first bodies went into my family plot, people died at home, in their beds. Loved ones, friends and neighbors gathered to watch and wait for you to “pass.” For Emily Dickinson, this moment was “that last Onset—when the King/Be witnessed—in the Room”: the breaching of the membrane between this world and the next.Nowadays, most deaths in the U.S. take place in hospitals or nursing homes. We die in cranked-up beds, tethered to machines that clinically record our last breath and heartbeat; there’s no mystery, no piercing of the veil. We don’t take our dead home, bathe them, dress them, and lay them out in the front parlor. Dead people, frankly, creep us out. American burial rituals—the embalming, the concrete vaults—are proof. “There’s this idea that you’re not going to decompose,” Janet sniffs. “We’re supposed to decompose.”One reason we’re so profoundly uncomfortable with death is that it’s become increasingly less familiar. In Pennsylvania in 1910, 150 out of every thousand children died before their first birthday. In 2010, it was less than eight. Death used to be a constant playmate; in Victorian times, a dead grandparent was mourned more than a dead child. Today, no tragedy looms larger than Sandy Hook.My kids have been to less than a handful of funerals—and just two viewings, which totally weirded them out. I only ever go to my family’s burial plot for funerals. Graveyards were once popular spots for picnics and outings, but not anymore. Not to mention that we’re all increasingly mobile, likely to live hundreds or even thousands of miles from where family members are buried. A baby born today will move 12 times in her lifetime. Millennials say they hope to change jobs every three years. You can take Mom with you if she’s in an urn. Eternity in the same place is becoming a tough sell.
At the corner of 22nd and Market in Center City, where the Salvation Army thrift store once stood, a chain-link fence is pocked with memorials to the victims of its collapse in June: ratty stuffed animals, the remnants of a wreath, plastic wrappers surrounding desiccated bouquets. After six months, the detritus at one of the busiest intersections in town goes pretty much unnoticed; passersby don’t even glance at the forlorn shrine.Japanese Buddhists believe the dead spend three to five decades as familial ancestor spirits before losing their personal identity and joining the larger spirit world. Why three to five decades? Because that’s as long as anyone who survives is likely to remember them. It’s a tidy system, and it avoids the problem that plagues both cemeteries and the corner of 22nd and Market: At some point, somebody will have to take down that chain-link fence and decide what to do with the clutter. Across America, graveyards demand mowing and weeding and raking and fertilizing. They’re going into bankruptcy. The living no longer visit. “No one’s going to take care of cemeteries,” Janet Monge says mournfully.You have to meet people where they are, though. Sociologist Peter Berger once wrote, “Every human society is, in the last resort, men banded together in the face of death.” Where will we band together now that we’re having our cremains packed into fireworks and made into jewels?We’re already there.Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky has a video she took on her smartphone of her sister Peggy and her sister Franny. Franny is dead, and Peggy is brushing Franny’s hair. Ronnie and Peggy and four other sisters were all with Franny when she died of cancer in the spring of 2011. “It was a beautiful day,” says Ronnie. “You could smell the hyacinths through the window. I thought, how could this day be so beautiful and Franny be gone?”Six months earlier, Ronnie’s mom had died. “Mom’s funeral was by the template,” says Ronnie, who grew up in a large Catholic family. “We went to the funeral director. We were carried by the institutional aspect of it, and there was great comfort in that.”When the family walked into the funeral home, “Mom looked so beautiful,” says Ronnie. “I don’t think she ever had a manicure in her life, but her nails were done, with just a little bit of pearl at the tips.” After the initial shock, everybody started laughing and joking: “The viewing was fun! Our childhood friends were there, my brothers and sisters were there, my parents’ friends—it was almost like a party, a beautiful reunion. I felt bad that Mom was just lying there.”Her mom was buried the next day in the family plot after a funeral at Holy Martyrs Church. “I was baptized there. I went to grade school there,” says Ronnie. “The priest adored my parents.” The funeral, too, was a reunion of sorts.Franny’s services proved more problematic. She and her husband didn’t belong to a church. “So we needed a place,” Ronnie explains. “We thought about a catering hall. But we wanted something that felt like a place where other seekers had gathered.” A pastor who knew the family asked if he could be of help, so they had a service at his church.Franny wanted to be cremated. She had ideas about her funeral’s vibe, too: “She had a fabulous sense of humor,” says Ronnie. “She didn’t want anyone to cry. She wanted AC/DC music. She wanted to distribute clown noses. Her funeral was very much her.”There was what Ronnie calls a “meet-and-greet” at the funeral home, with pictures and posters of Franny everywhere, and half the kids from her teenage sons’ school, and her ashes in a box. Then came the service at the church (songs included “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) and then lunch, with a DJ and dancing—and clown noses. “Franny would have loved it,” Ronnie says.Ronnie has a little bag of Franny’s ashes in her desk drawer at home. She also has Franny’s Facebook page to look at, and the brief video, taken just after Franny died, when it didn’t seem right to leave her alone in her hospice bed. Ronnie and Peggy stayed until the undertaker came. Franny had always been meticulous about her appearance, so they did her hair and makeup, as a final act of love. Then Ronnie took a few last photos and the video. “I look at them all the time,” she says, and touches her heart unconsciously.Our societal switch from burial to cremation doesn’t just reflect the fact we’re less convinced we’ll need our bodies for the Resurrection. It’s our way of saying that our bodies no longer truly represent who we are, or were. How could they, when, like Ronnie, we can open our phones and see our sister long after she’s dead and gone?Gary Laderman, an Emory University professor of American religious history, has written about “the uncannily appropriate fit between modern fixations on death and the fecund ritual possibilities in cyberspace.” Mourners are paying to maintain their loved ones’ cell-phone accounts, in order to preserve treasured voicemails. Facebook allows Timelines for the dead to stay open, so messages can be sent across that great divide. Visitors to the Pennsylvania Burial Co.’s new website will be able to sign memorial books, light candles, post photos and video clips, leave mementos and messages, all without having to look death in the eye. (And you know what? A population fixated on selfies isn’t likely to trust a mortuary cosmetologist to create its last look anyway.)The Internet will allow us to mourn in our own ways, at our own pace. We’ll discover new truths about our interconnectedness; we’ll touch base with long-lost family and friends. Our deaths will be woven into the twinkling reaches of the cyber-universe, spinning there forever with all the vast pictorial and textual clutter of our births, our education, our courtships, our likes and dislikes, far beyond the limitations of time and space.And that limitlessness makes what was once the clear divide between life and death more porous. If my mom had died today instead of 30 years ago, she would have left more than a single photo for the grandkids. She would have crafted a whole online portfolio, a greatest-hits show on Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook and Vine. My kids would see her all the time. She would live in their pockets. Really, how is a grandmother who’s dead any different from one who’s in Seattle, or Seoul? Talk about blurred lines.So we get everlasting life without all the fuss about hell and heaven. Trust the boomers to cheat the Grim Reaper once and for all.
It makes sense, once you decide the body doesn’t much matter, to have it go up in flames. Fire is spirit; it’s electricity; it’s energy. It’s what we plug our phones and iPads into. It’s the exact opposite of stasis and rot.Not everybody is a fan of cremation, though. As I’m about to leave the Pennsylvania Burial Co., Peter and Victor introduce me to a big, burly guy in jeans and a work shirt who’s striding in through the front door: “This is our embalmer, Michael.”From what I’ve read about the embalming process, I’m expecting Gollum, not a dead ringer for James Gandolfini. Michael clasps my hand in a grip like the grave. “Are you really the embalmer?” I ask dubiously.“The last person to see you naked!” he booms, and grins.Peter and Victor are appalled: “Don’t say that!” But I laugh; his high spirits are contagious. If I’m going to have my body suctioned out, let it be by this cheery guy.The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the number of U.S. embalmers has fallen by half since 2005. That makes Michael an endangered species. In the new age of everlasting online life, who’s going to fork over the big bucks to be entombed?Victor and Peter will. “We’re both going to be buried,” Victor says stoutly. “In the family plot. I want to be buried there with my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. But not till a long ways off.”So will Janet Monge—“But not so I can be resurrected. I want to be dug up. I think that would be the coolest thing.”comment on this post
Be respectful of our online community and contribute to an engaging conversation. We reserve the right to ban impersonators and remove comments that contain personal attacks, threats, or profanity, or are flat-out offensive. By posting here, you are permitting Philadelphia magazine and Metro Corp. to edit and republish your comment in all media.- MystiKasT
well blacks are sending us all to our graves a little earlier than we’d like- Jim Black
I’ll are wrestle you on Christmas Eve for that spot on top of Aunt Mildred!- lindab2
Totally agree with this article, but I have to share what my 98 year old mother said about funerals — hers, in particular. “I don’t want a ‘memorial” — I don’t want a ‘celebration of my life’ for god’s sake. I want people to cry!!”- RuthAnnHarnisch
I’m a member of the Infinity Burial Project. Jae Rhim Lee has designed what Stephen Colbert called “The ‘Shroom Tomb,” a biodegradable suit impregnated with toxin-mitigating mushroom spores. We can decompose and detox the earth at the same time! I wonder if I can combine that with a donation of my corpse to the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee where the study of decomposition aids in forensic science.- Apotopaic
One factual error: dead bodies do not cause disease. Common misconception, unfortunately, that has led to mass graves after disasters.- Lee Calhoon
And I love what Johnny Carson said about how he wanted to be buried…he said, “when I die I want to be freeze dried and pounded into the ground with a mallet”- RealityTeeVee
That funeral home chick on Mob Wives from Philly will probably do them in.- Tizzielish
A way to perk up the funeral biz is to have second lines, as they do in New Orleans. Gigs for musicians, community building, celebrating the deceased’s life through joyful singing and dancing. why not?- http://www.reverbnation.com/rpk/saintgabrielscelestialbrassband
We do many Second Line Funerals and life celebrations every year a wonderful way to have tearless funerals. http://www.reverbnation.com/rpk/saintgabrielscelestialbrassband- BT
Hathaway
Hi Sandy, congrats on the Marketplace interview. I caught the tail end of your talk with Kai last night. I’m a 4th generation funeral director who is facing 60% cremation rather than the 6% of your friends from Philly. At my rates, the entire business model starts to break down and your title becomes quite apt. I expect we will see (particularly in the northeast) a dramatic decline in the number of funeral homes in the years ahead.So now we need to find ways to address modern cremation which I see as detached and industrial. There’s nothing comforting about a generic serial number and an ugly black plastic box, so I’ve started something called MemryStone, ceramic markers which survivors inscribe with a message and send through the cremation process. The markers return with the final remains and provide a personal form of identity confirmation and a touchstone for love and memory. http://www.memrystone.com Molded by hand in SE Massachusetts and available to anyone across the country.- Tom Wiggins
Everybody wants to go to Heaven, just nobody wants to go Today :))- Heritage Funeral Home
It is misleading to compare an $8,300 funeral (not including plot) with a $1,400 cremation (with urn and no service). Cremation is simply an alternative form of disposition. A family can still have an $8,300 funeral and then either pay for the crematory charge or for the cemetery charge. Cremation does not preclude a wake or other services. Too many times, families think that they HAVE to have a direct cremation and that they are not allowed to have a wake – which of course is not true. Cremation is simply a more affordable form of disposition,- Jeff Harbeson
Brilliant and well written piece. The funeral industry as a whole is still conducting business like they did 10 years or more ago. However, consumers are shifting in their views of death, religion and certainly the economy has forced many to make funeral arrangements with their pocketbook, not their heart. Smart providers, such as the firm profiled here, are changing their operations to meet the consumer demand.------------------
AND..
BLOGGED:- some fun from all the crappy bullshit and beans on the news spews these days...we had good days 2 and our young are just beautiful
BETTE DAVIS- OLD AGE AIN'T NO PLACE 4 SISSIES- FOLKS OVER 55 ONLY PLEASE- middle age and seniors ONLY- some smiles, some music- life - every day is a good day
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/01/folks-over-55-only-please-middle-age.html---BLOGGED:SENIORS- PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES- Nova Scotia Canada- Global hits-NOVA SCOTIA SENIORS How 2 prepare4disaster/International Disability and Senior Links/Mental Wellness/Wheelchair/coping with disabilities proudly- RECYCLE- how 2 separate your householdgarbage and electronic waste (thanks Kings Co. Nova Scotia) - let’s git r done Canada... and world.... Seniors and Disabled matter- all links provided- thx Canada-USA-UK-Aussies-Europe etc.
---- - MystiKasT
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