WESTLOCK – The County of Westlock is trying to get information on all the cemeteries in the county and is looking for help.
County councillors asked Agriculture and Environmental Services Co-ordinator Kevin Trueblood for more information at their Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 9 after Trueblood presented a report to council on local cemeteries in December.
The county currently owns four cemeteries, in Tawatinaw and Pickardville, Shoal Creek and Halach. Tawatinaw and Pickardville are run directly by the county, with Shoal Creek and Halach managed by their communities.
There are somewhere between one and two dozen other known cemeteries operated by churches and other groups in the county, some of which are still active and can take additional plots, though some are historical sites.
The county faces several challenges with cemeteries, including record-keeping, maintenance and upkeep and preparing to take over operation of community cemeteries in the future.
Municipalities are required to maintain cemeteries in their area if their owner discontinues operating them according to provincial legislation.
Cemetery records can go back decades and are often kept informally or with handwritten notes, leading to significant work for staff when cemeteries are handed over to the county, Trueblood noted in his report.
Cemetery maps can also be difficult to interpret, making it unclear whether plots are is use or reserved, and older plots that were not properly surveyed can lead to graves overlapping or plots being unusable, the report says.
The county surveyed its four cemeteries in 2022 and 2023 and now knows where all the plots are located. Staff are now working to reconcile its maps with existing records to confirm who is buried where, which areas are reserved and which plots are still available for purchase.
“It is hoped that all records will be reconciled and presentable to the public before the end of 2024,” the report says.
The county faces challenges with the aging and retirement of volunteers maintaining cemeteries, the rising cost of maintenance and lack of space for additional plots, according to the report.
Coun. Sherri Provencal asked if staff was going to each hamlet in the county to try to make a map of all known gravesites.
Trueblood said a finalized map is one of the outcomes. “There’s a checklist of things to be done to assess current challenges at our cemeteries, reach out to community cemeteries to find the needs of which and see where the County can assist,” he said.
The county is working on reaching out to those with information on community cemeteries now, Trueblood said.
Reeve Christine Wiese said many people have asked about community cemeteries at recent community meetings and said she hoped it would be able to be resolved in 2025.
Coun. Jared Stitsen noted that the county was seeing a trend of people from cities coming out to local cemeteries based on price differences for grave sites, and urged staff to look at fees.
Currently Westlock County-owned cemeteries charge $550 for a new plot, while some of the smaller cemeteries in the county charge as little as $50 for a new plot. That compares to $800 in the Town of Westlock, $1,700 in St. Albert and $3,000 in Edmonton, according to staff’s report.
Stitsen also said he had heard from some residents about overgrown cemeteries.
Chief Administrative Officer Tony Kulbisky acknowledged Trueblood’s work: “It’s almost at the point that we don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.
Staff will come up with a new strategic plan and cemetery bylaw with new rates and charges as a result of this work, Kulbisky said.
Trueblood asked councillors to contact him if any residents reached out to them with information about community cemeteries. Members of the public with information can also reach Trueblood at 780-307-0586 or by email at [email protected].
