Folks often question what rules there are with regard to the disposition of cremated remains. The following information that will provide you with answers is taken from the following government website:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/arrange-funeral-burial-cremation-or-scattering
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.
Once you are on the above website, you can read more information that is included in the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act which is the Act that Funeral Homes are governed under in Ontario.
