Waterloo no longer offering cremation services, signs lease with private company

The City of Waterloo wants an outside company to take over the municipally-owned crematorium at Parkview Cemetery. CTV’s Karis Mapp has more on the change.

The City of Waterloo will soon no longer offer cremation services.

The city has offered cremation at Parkview Cemetery for the last 20 years, but starting in 2026, that will come to an end. City officials said the decision was made due to an increase in competition and a decrease in demand.

“We rely on our funeral home providers to bring us customer and bodies for our units, and some of our current customers are looking to get into the cremation business,” Derek Brick, the city’s manager of parks, forestry and cemetery services, said.

However, just because the city will no longer offer the service does not mean residents can’t still access the option. It will now be handled by Southwest Crematoriums.

“They approached us with a letter of intent to take over the facility and brought us an offer,” Brick explained.

The company is a cooperative business owned by funeral homes primarily across southwestern Ontario. Locally, they offer cremation services for Erb & Good Funeral Home in Waterloo, Corbett Funeral Home and Lounsbery Funeral Home in Cambridge.

“Cremation rates have gone up significantly in the province of Ontario and across Canada for that matter,” Brett Denning, director of finance and business development with Southwest Crematoriums, explained.

“What that’s done is it has put pressure on funeral homes to make sure that they can serve families in a way that families expect.”

Southwest Crematoriums officially takes over cremation services as of Jan. 1, but the city will still be the owner of the grounds at Parkview.

“The only thing that’s changing is the crematorium space will not be leased as part of our building,” Brick said.

Under the conditions of the lease, Southwest Crematoriums will be in the building for at least ten years and officials said there’s potential to extend that agreement.

The facility’s equipment will also remain on-site.

“Part of the agreement is the purchase of the retort unit,” added Brick. “So for us, it’s business as usual. It’s just a change of who walks in the door.”

The decision also comes after a provincial law change in 2012, which opened more opportunities for the industry.

“Legislation was changed by the province of Ontario that would allow someone to own both a funeral home and cremation service,” Denning said.

That’s happening more often locally, including at the Henry Walser Funeral Home in Kitchener.

“We started seven years ago with an application to include a crematorium in our additions that we had planned,” said funeral home owner Henry Walser. “Just last week, we commissioned the cremation equipment.”