Crematorium awaits development permit

Photo by Will Johnson

Before any ground is broken on the crematorium planned for Centennial Street near the Alaska Highway, Heritage North Funeral Home director Chris Thompson is making sure all the necessary permits are in place.

He is also preparing to move the funeral home operations to his new Cook Street property.

While zoning for the crematorium was approved last year, Thompson said in an interview Monday afternoon he expects it will be just a few days before the city approves the development permit and ground can be broken on the Porter Creek site.

At that point, a contractor will have to be found to remove bad soil from the site and replace it with good fill and have the concrete poured, hopefully by the end of this construction season.

While the interim move to Cook Street and plans for an entirely new funeral home in Porter Creek have made for a lot of work for Thompson, he noted the efforts will see the funeral home become much more accessible, with more space for individuals.

“It will be a nice-sized building,“ he said as he looked over the plans for the Porter Creek structure.

From the beginning, Thompson knew the building would have to be constructed in phases, with the crematorium being the first of two or three.

While the development permit is still going through the approval phase, the crematorium itself has been ordered and will have to be delivered once the building is finished.

The structure will feature landscaping around it with the crematorium located at the far west end, as far away from the neighbourhood as possible following considerable debate last year during the zoning approval.

Thompson would like to see the crematorium in place this year. However, the rest of the facility, including a garage, visiting area, casket selection room, chapel, kitchen and reception area on the main floor and the three apartment units on the top floor (with Thompson and his family planning to live in one) will be done over a period of three years in either two or three phases. As Thompson pointed out, that could end up being closer to five depending on paper work and the availability of contractors.

“We’ll have to play it by ear,“ he said.

In the interim, the Cook Street location will be used starting in August after the lease to the current site on Strickland Street ends.

While Thompson says the current site has served Heritage North well over the last 15 years, even the Cook Street site will be more accessible, with fewer levels and more space prior to the Porter Creek site being built.

Walking through the funeral home, Thompson points out the steps visitors have to take to even get into the older building. Steps continue to get into rooms for casket selection, visitation and so on, making it difficult for many elders who are already dealing with a difficult time, he said.

“Cook (Street) will be a significant step up for our community,“ he said.

The renovated house on Cook will include a larger room for visiting, larger entry way and will help the funeral home iron out some of the details in planning for the Porter Creek site.

With the first phase of the Porter Creek plans being the crematorium, Thompson, said many families ask about where plans are for that.

A number of years ago, the crematorium wouldn’t have been feasible for the company, but with the 50/50 ratio of cremations to traditional burials, there’s a need for it in the city.

Right now, if a family wants the deceased to be cremated, the body has to be flown to Vancouver, with the ashes returning four or five days later.

That time lapse and distance often leave the family with a sense of being disconnected. Often families will go to the airport to watch the plane leave.

“There goes the airplane and they’re (the deceased) gone,“ Thompson said, noting families will also often go out to the airport to watch the flight carrying the ashes come in.

The other side of the situation in the territory is other family members who come up from Outside, who are often faced with the decision of whether to come shortly after the death or wait until after the cremation. It also forces the family into deciding when the service should be held based around the cremation schedule.

Having a crematorium in the city may also inflate the funeral costs, though Thompson noted that like many things in the past years, costs for the funeral home have risen, which means reductions in pricing may not as significant as originally thought.

Taken out of the equation, however, will be the airfare and fuel surcharge for the body to be sent to Vancouver. In some cases, Thompson has seen the fuel surcharge as high as $300.

Currently, a basic cremation costs $3,000 and higher while a basic burial costs close to $2,500 as well as the casket, which can take it up to $3,500 and higher. The additional costs include things like visitations, services and such.

Though Thompson did not have the room sizes available, he noted the Porter Creek facility will include a significantly large visitation room with space to enlarge into the casket selection room if needed.

With the building being all on one level, with the exception of the apartments upstairs, the caskets from the room can be moved into the adjoining garage, which will sit next to the crematorium.

There will also be a reception area and chapel - the third phase of the project if it’s done in three phases.

Because the apartments would sit over the other section of the building, they would be done in the second phase.

As a business that has to operate on a 24/7 schedule at times, Thompson said having the family’s home over the business just makes good sense.

“We’re very family-oriented,“ he said, noting while the nature of the business can mean working odd hours, the family always tries to make it home for supper.

This means he will no longer have to go home to eat, then run downtown once again in the evening for work.

Growing up across the street from a funeral home, Thompson is no stranger to living near such a facility, but he admitted it had crossed his mind whether people would want to rent out the other apartment units being built.

Calling other funeral homes Outside, he learned others had found tenants for similar sites and that having tenants helps provide around-the-clock security.

As for whether Whitehorse residents will want to live over a funeral home, Thompson commented: “Time will tell.“

With the new building plans in place, Thompson said he will also have to eventually hire a new full-time funeral director.

He is considering options for that, whether it’s through an apprenticeship locally or finding a licensed director from Outside who wants to