One common question that people ask me about cremation is whether or not it is illegal to scatter ashes. Here is information directly from the Government of Ontario website. ..
In Ontario:
- You may buy rights to bury or scatter the remains in a registered cemetery
- You may buy rights to place the remains in a niche within a columbarium in a registered cemetery. A columbarium is an above-ground structure that contains a number of niches. This is considered an interment and not scattering
- You may scatter cremated remains on private property with the consent of the land owner. If a land owner wants to allow repeated scatterings to take place on a specific piece of his or her property, he or she must register that land as a cemetery
- You may also hire a licensed employee of a cemetery, crematorium, funeral home or transfer service to scatter the cremated remains on your behalf
- You may scatter cremated remains on unoccupied government-owned Crown lands or Crown lands covered by water (which includes provincial parks and conservation reserves, and the Great Lakes) without government consent. However, you should check for any signs with rules or prohibitions around the scattering of cremated remains.
- If you wish to scatter cremated remains on municipally-owned lands, you should check municipal by-laws first.
This information can be found at the following website: http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/pages/fbcsa_basics.aspx#6
