Cremation in Vancouver: What It Costs and How It Works

If you’re a Vancouver family looking into cremation, the number you’re looking for is $1,999.65, all in.

That figure covers the transfer of your person into our care from anywhere in Vancouver, the cremation itself, the container, registration of the death, and the permits. There’s no separate mileage charge for coming into the city, and no surcharge for calling us at two in the morning.

We tell families the price first because we think you should be able to make this decision without having to work for the information.

Our facilities are in Aldergrove, and we serve Vancouver, the North Shore, Richmond, Burnaby, and the rest of Metro Vancouver from there. That’s part of why the price holds - we’re not carrying the cost of a chapel on Kingsway or a reception room off Granville, and we’ve never believed families should be paying for rooms they didn’t ask for.

What $1,999.65 covers

The parts of a cremation that aren’t optional:

• Transfer from the place of death, 24 hours a day, seven days a week

• Care and sheltering of your person until the cremation

• A rigid combustible cremation container

• The crematorium fee

• Completing and filing the death registration with the BC Vital Statistics Agency

• The disposition permit

• Return of the cremated remains in a basic container

What it doesn’t cover: an urn beyond the basic container, death certificates ordered from Vital Statistics, an obituary in the Vancouver Sun or Province, a cemetery niche or plot, or a service with us present.

All of those are itemized on our pricing page, so you can see the number before you commit to anything. If something isn’t on that list, we’re not going to add it to your bill.

A note on GST

GST at five per cent applies to funeral goods and services in British Columbia, and the $1,999.65 figure is the all-in amount you pay. PST works differently - it applies to some tangible goods rather than to professional services, so an urn purchased separately may be taxed differently than the cremation itself.

Ask us for the line-by-line breakdown before you sign anything. You’re entitled to it: Consumer Protection BC requires every licensed provider in the province to give you a written price list and a signed contract. We’re licensed under number 16036.

Where we collect from in Vancouver

Most of our Vancouver transfers come from Vancouver General, St. Paul’s, Mount Saint Joseph, and UBC Hospital, and from the hospices - St. John Hospice at UBC, May’s Place in the Downtown Eastside, and Marion Hospice. We also collect from private residences across the city, from care homes, and from the BC Coroners Service when a death has been reported to them.

If the death happened at home, call us before anything else moves and we’ll walk you through it.

If it happened in a hospital, the ward will care for your person until we arrive. There’s no urgency about the hour you call - the middle of the night is fine, but so is the next morning, after you’ve had a chance to sit with your family. Nothing is lost by waiting until you’re ready.

The paperwork, and how long it takes

A cremation in BC can’t proceed until the death is registered with the BC Vital Statistics Agency and a disposition permit is issued. Before that can happen, the medical certificate of death has to be completed by the attending physician or nurse practitioner.

That’s the step that most often causes a wait. A hospital death in Vancouver usually produces the certificate within a day or two. A death at home, where the family doctor has to be tracked down, can take longer. We’ll keep you posted rather than leaving you wondering.

If the death is reportable to the BC Coroners Service - sudden, unexpected, unattended, or the result of an accident - nothing proceeds until the coroner releases your person. That timeline is out of our hands and out of yours, and we know how hard the waiting is.

Who signs the authorization is set out in the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act, which ranks the people entitled to control the disposition: the personal representative named in the will first, then the spouse, then adult children, and onward down a defined list. If a family disagrees, that section is what settles it.

Most Vancouver families never make the drive to Aldergrove. Arrangements can be handled by phone and email with documents signed electronically, or one of our funeral directors can come to you in the city. Whichever is easier for your family is the right way to do it.

After the cremation

Mountain View Cemetery at 5455 Fraser Street is the only cemetery inside the City of Vancouver. It’s owned and operated by the city and has columbarium niches, family estate plots, a scattering ground, and Celebration Hall for services. Pricing and availability come from the city directly rather than from us.

Many families keep the remains at home instead, or scatter them somewhere that meant something. If you’re scattering in a city park or at Mountain View, arrange it with the City of Vancouver rather than assuming - it’s a small step that saves a difficult conversation later.

There’s no deadline on this decision. Some families know right away; others keep the urn at home for a year while they think it through. Both are fine.

If faith is part of the decision

Vancouver’s congregations approach cremation differently, and the answer is rarely a flat no. We’ve written up what each tradition actually permits:

• Catholic

• Anglican

• United Church of Canada

• Lutheran

• Protestant more broadly

• Buddhist

Choosing direct cremation doesn’t rule out a funeral. Plenty of Vancouver families cremate first and hold the service weeks later at their parish, their temple, or a rented hall, once relatives have been able to fly in. That order costs less and gives everyone time - which is often exactly what a grieving family needs most.

Help with the cost

If money is a worry right now, say so. There are programs that may apply:

The Canada Pension Plan death benefit is a one-time payment to the estate of a CPP contributor, applied for through Service Canada. If the death was work-related, WorkSafeBC covers funeral costs. If it followed a motor vehicle crash, ICBC funeral benefits may apply. And if the estate genuinely can’t cover the arrangements, the BC Ministry of Social Development offers a funeral cost supplement.

Ask us and we’ll tell you which forms to file. We do this often, and we’d rather help you find the funding than watch a family take on debt they didn’t need to.

Call us at any hour. We’ll give you the number before we give you anything else, and we won’t ask you to make a single decision you’re not ready to make.