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Earlier this month, the province’s funeral and funeral industry’s Ontario organization announced that it would no longer be criticized by funeral home directors and that the organization would no longer be charged.
“I’m ecstatic, but it shouldn’t take that long,” said Eric Mumford, director of the Eral Funeral Pavilion at the Benjamin Park Memorial in Toronto.
Mumford is also a father who lost two babies.
“It’s devastating,” he said. “Parents have this child and they expect that in 20 weeks they are full of hope and dreams and then the world collapses for some reason.”
Recognizing the damage it has caused to parents, many funeral homes like the Benjamin Park Memorial have long waived all related fees.
“We gave up on the coffin, our personnel expenses, cars and everything else. Several cemeteries we deal with don’t charge for burial plots, and the City of Toronto has also given up on fees for a long time.”
But until recently, Ontario’s Bereavement Authority was a government-authorized agency that regulates funeral homes and cemeteries still charged $30 to register for stillbirth.
“So we have to tell parents, ‘Everything is taken care of, but we still have to charge you that fee,” Mumford said. “For a long time, the thorn around me is that this authority of management has not given up on this.”
Mumford said he and others had contacted Bao over the years to ask for the fee to be removed, which was done. On April 7, the BAO announced that Mumford and others were working hard to get rid of the expenses they were no longer charged.
“In response to the provincial government’s announcement in the fall, the BAO is canceling licensing fees related to child death care services for stillbirth,” a statement said.
“It is a glorious gesture and commemoration to show respect for the loss of future family members in this initiative and will help families feel sad,” said Bao’s CEO Jim Cassimatis.
Mumford said it should have been long ago.
“I just hope they do it earlier. They should do it earlier. That’s the right thing to do it.
When asked why it took so long to terminate the fees that many municipalities and funeral halls have long waived, Bao did not respond.
Regardless, Mumford was satisfied, saying that it doesn’t have to worry about families experiencing unexpected tragedies.
“No one plans.
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