By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
People are dying to get into Oliver’s Cemetery, and with increasing amounts of cremations taking place, Oliver is questioning the rules on full-size plots.
At their April 22, 2025 council meeting, town staff brought multiple amendments to the Cemetery Bylaw for consideration, including changing the rules around dogs and the amount of cremains that are allowed in a full-size plot.
No firm decisions were made as the topic “raised more questions than was maybe anticipated,” councillor Aimee Grice noted.
But Councillor David Mattes was particularly invested in making changes to restrictive rules around burying cremains in a full-sized plot only if a full-sized burial has taken place in that plot.
The bylaw explains that “a limit of four sets of cremains shall be permitted to be interred in a standard size plot space, already used for a full-sized burial.”
This means that cremains cannot be placed in a full size plot unless there has been a full-size burial.
Unlike the Osoyoos Lakeview Cemetery, cremains can only be placed in full-size cemetery plots in the Oliver Cemetery (pictured above) if a full size burial has taken place first.
Don Urquhart photo
“Times have changed in terms of the prevalence of cremation as opposed to a full burial. I don’t think that we are meeting the needs of the community,” Mattes explained to council.
According to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) the cremation rate in Canada has increased significantly, going from 58.9 per cent in 2008, to 75.3 per cent in 2023. They also project that this could reach 80 per cent by 2028.
Mattes went on to give an example of a community member impacted by the restrictive rules. He explained they were trying to consolidate “two or three sets of cremains throughout the cemetery, they want to consolidate them all into one plot. The bill is $12,000 to do that.”
“At the end it is because they are putting it into this plot, they are actually having to buy a casket to put one of them in the casket before they put the others into the ground.”
Mattes went on to explain “in Osoyoos they allow people to put cremains in the standard plot . . . without any questions.”
Space in Osoyoos Lakeview Cemetery is filling up and may require land a purchase in the near future.
Don Urquhart photo
In section 4.7 subsection B of the Osoyoos Cemetery Bylaw it explains that “no more than eight interments of cremated remains may be interred in lots designated and sold as full-size graves.”
Oliver public works explained in response that “we don’t want to get to the place Osoyoos is in right now. Osoyoos is almost full, the cemetery is almost full. I have been told by the funeral directors at Nunes Pottinger that they will be potentially looking at a land purchase and development of a new cemetery very soon.”
He continued to say that before any development of a new cemetery happens in Osoyoos “we will see residents of Osoyoos coming to Oliver to our cemetery.”
The works department referred to the concern about “limiting the utilization of the cemetery”.
In the bylaw there is a stipulation that if a person has a full plot and wants to be cremated there is an allowance for them to exchange a full burial plot for a cremation plot.
Another important proposed change the town is considering is around allowing dogs that must be on leash and “any excrement is immediately removed and disposed of in a sanitary manner.”
