Green Burial and St. Margaret's Cemetery

A year ago, in September 2023 the Board of St. Margaret’s Cemetery commissioned a group of volunteers to prepare a development plan for the possible creation of a Green Burial section in the cemetery. The committee was comprised of Sharon Maloney, Nan Beals, Mary Des Chene, and Lynn DeCaire with added support from Norm Kasting, Sid Mawson, The Thetis Island Nature Conservancy , Chris Call and Capernwray. Over the winter this committee researched how Green Burial cemeteries operate and reviewed the data with regards to trends today and into the future for the disposition of remains. They visited a couple of operating Green Burial cemeteries on Salt Spring and Denman Islands and spoke directly with the operators. In the spring of this year, they presented their findings to the Board. We are grateful to the hard work, commitment and enthusiasm with which this committee followed the directive. They did an amazing job!

On Sunday August 11 Simone Luckham ( Treasurer) and myself will be present in the Board Room at Forbes Hall during library hours 1 pm ‘til 3 . The final reports and proposals will be available for the community to check out. We are there to answer your questions and to make public the cemetery’s next moves with regard to this project.

See you there.

Suzanne Sarioglu
Chair, St. Margaret’s Cemetery