Recently as I peruse articles about the death care business I’ve been surprised by the number of articles that deal with some type of government funded “cut” coming to funeral service.  Just a week after posting about the Province of New Brunswick (Canada) reducing government support for indigent funeral and cremation services, I have discovered the same type of thing happening in Saskatchewan and also an article about the State of North Carolina refusing to fund a request of $200,000 at their stave veteran’s cemetery.

The article in CBCnews/Saskatchewan pretty much mirrors what we saw happening in New Brunswick only about a week ago.  In trying to save the province about $1 million ($757,00 US) annually the province announced that they would be chopping the payments to provincial funeral homes by about 46% for publicly funded funerals and cremations.  The government announced that as of July 1, 2017, they will now pay $2,100 ($1,591 U.S.) instead of their current rate of $3,850 ($2,916 U.S) for funeral services.  Because of funeral director backlash however, the Saskatchewan province has backtracked, just as New Brunswick did,  and is willing to pay another $1,400 (making a total of $3,500 instead of the current $3,850) if embalming is required and a funeral service is held.  Saskatchewan officials called this the $600K ($454K U.S.) compromise and the province will now save only about $400,000.  The province will fund families who choose cremation to the tune of only $925 ($700 U.S.)

As to the North Carolina funding item, WRAL.com reports that the $23 billion state budget leaves out the entire request of $200,000 for the maintenance and jobs at the Eastern Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  The cemetery currently holds the interred remains of 264 people and has over 400 pre-registered to be buried there.  The burial capacity is estimated to be about 6,500.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It is interesting that in a time of relative prosperity in the United States and Canada public assistance for things such as indigent burials and public cemetery operations are going down.  I just think that there is such a huge demand for public services for the entitled generations that state and provincial governments are having to make very hard decisions and funeral service, because of its relative prosperity, gets asked to do more with less.

From a practical point of view I can see how these legislators look at successful funeral service businesses and say, “They can contribute a little too”.  Now, I don’t think that is right because you do contribute through your income taxes, property taxes and the like.  However, compassionate funeral directors are a pretty easy target for politicians to take advantage of.  We all want to “Serve” our communities.

I don’t see this getting any better for funeral service providers.  If governments are going to ask more of you and you don’t want the money coming out of your own pocket as a benevolent charity to society, then you have to work a driver into your budget to cover these costs.

For instance, if you surmise that the potential loss on publicly funded funerals will be $500 per case and you will have one case per month, or 12 per year, for a total loss of $6000 per year, then you have to have income to at least break even on that.  Let’s just say that in the scenario where you lose that $6000 annually, you also do 100 services per year in a profitable vein.  So, to make that $6000 back, then you need to spread it out over your other client families which would mean a price increase of $60 per case for the 100 just to stay even.

As a business you need to do this or your compassion will put you in the hole.

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