For many people, a funeral offers an opportunity for a final goodbye, but that closure might no longer be available to those who can’t afford it.
The provincial government won’t cover the cost of viewings and services after July 1, according to the latest provincial budget.
“It just seems so insulting that this would be something that would be even considered. It’s really unimagineable,” Peter Gilmer, an Anti-Poverty Ministry Advocate, said. “We see this cut as being very dehumanizing and degrading.”
“It needs to be stopped, and frankly, all these cuts put together only come up to $10.6 million in terms of income assistance and that’s a small cost for the government but a huge cost in terms of quality of life for people.”
The government expects the move to save a million dollars this year.
“My priority is the people that we currently serve in social services and making sure that they continue to have the lights on and food on the table and a roof over their heads. That’s my priority,” Social Services Minister Tina Beaudry-Mellor said on Thursday.
“It’s nonsense to be saying that this is shifting resources to meeting people’s other basic needs because this budget is taking away that capacity as well,” Gilmer said. “It’s actually cutting back on the capacity to meet the most basic food shelter and clothing needs.”
Beaudry-Mellor met with Todd Lumbard, Saskatchewan Board of Funeral Homes’ past president, on Friday.
“We wanted the government to understand what it meant to the funeral homes, what impact this was going to have on us and our members and also more specifically, our ability to serve people that are essentially the most vulnerable people in our communities,” Lumbard said.
“The position of the provincial government was that they were trying to bring Saskatchewan in line with some other provinces but in fact I think there was a bit of a miscalculation and misunderstanding. There are quite a few nuances around pricing and things like that…the meeting today really helped clarify some of those things.”
“There are no other provinces in Canada that do not fund funeral services,” he added.
“The option of having a funeral service and visitation is very important. People need an opportunity to come together and mourn. We see that every single day in this profession,” Lumbard said. “So it was one of the things that we stressed today. These folks that need it the most really need to be able to do this.”
Like many other decisions made in the latest budget, the government didn’t reach out to those who would be affected ahead of time.
“If we need to include some flexibility in what we proposed in our budget, then we will look at that as well,” Beaudry-Mellor had said ahead of the meeting.
The government and funeral home board issued a joint statement following Friday’s meeting. “We had discussions regarding the rate structure and funeral services. We recognized that we have a common goal to provide support and assistance for all sectors of our society, including the most vulnerable,” it read.
The two parties say they both expect to continue discussions over the coming weeks.
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