MOOSE JAW — It will be more expensive to bury someone in 2025, as city hall is increasing cemetery fees between three and 10 per cent to address rising costs and maintenance issues at both locations.
The parks and recreation branch conducts an annual review of rates and provides a recommendation to its advisory committee on the possible changes and how they could affect the budget.
The rates often require annual increases to offset the inflationary costs of maintaining and operating Rosedale and Moose Jaw cemeteries and to ensure the fees align with the rates in other Saskatchewan communities, a Nov. 25 city council report explained.
The department’s recommendations for next year were based on several factors, including:
- A review and assessment of burial trends, specifically, full-casket burials versus cremation burials
- A comparison of cemetery rates from other communities
- Projected cost increases and historical cemetery cost recovery rates
Furthermore, a rates calculation chart ensures that the discounted rates for children and veterans remain at a consistent percentage lower than the regular rates, the report said. This means a regular child or veteran grave will always be 50 per cent of the regular rate.
Areas of increase
A summary of the 2025 rate adjustments shows:
- Regular adult burial rates will increase by three per cent to $2,060 from $2,000
- Veteran burial rates will rise by three per cent to $1,030 from $1,001
- Regular adult opening and closing of graves will increase by three per cent to $1,339 from $1,300
- Child grave burials will increase by three per cent to $1,030 from $1,001
- Opening and closing of child graves will increase by eight per cent to $670 from $619
- Cremation burial rates for one and two urns will increase by eight per cent; one urn will cost $1,133 from $1,048, while two urns will cost $1,545 from $1,429
- A veteran cremation grave will rise by eight per cent to $567 from $524
- Cremation openings and closing will jump by eight per cent to $453 from $419
- Columbarium rates for a niche will increase by three per cent to $3,345 from $3,245
- Columbarium niche openings and closing will increase by three per cent to $167 from $162
- After-hour rates and charges increase by five to 10 per cent based on whether after-hours occur on a weekday, weekend or holiday
Most burials continue to be cremations, with the cost to open and close such burials being considerably less than a full-casket burial, the council report said.
Year-to-date, the data show there have been 48 full burials and 120 cremation burials, which means the latter comprise 73 per cent of total burials.
In comparison, those numbers last year were 48, 129 and 73 per cent, respectively. Also, the numbers over the five-year average are 46, 125 and 73 per cent, respectively.
Financial implications
In 2025, city hall expects to see total revenues of $381,740 and total expenses of $494,043, leading to an expected loss of $112,303, the report said. This loss means council will have to subsidize this area by 23 per cent next year.
In comparison, revenues this year were budgeted at $317,585 and expenses were budgeted at $407,456, leading to a loss of $89,871, which meant council had to subsidize this area by 22 per cent.
Meanwhile, the five-year average for total revenues is $359,824, for total expenses is $433,022, for overall losses is $73,198, and a subsidy requirement of 17 per cent.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Dec. 2.
