Cemetery running out of room, Sudbury OKs $4M expansion

Greater Sudbury approves $4M cemetery expansion With a waitlist for some burial services already building in the city – council approved a $4 million expansion of a city-owned cemetery.

With a waitlist in place for some burial services, Greater Sudbury has approved a $4 million expansion of the Civic Memorial Mausoleum.

Built in 2000, the facility on Second Avenue has been expanded four times, most recently in 2012. It offers such services as in-ground burials, crypts that hold caskets and niches for cremated remains.

But the facility is reaching capacity, particularly for crypts, a staff report on the project said.

"As of December 2019, there are no crypt spaces available and the inventory for niche spaces will require replenishment by 2023 based on historic sales," the report said.

"There is a continued demand for interior crypt and niche spaces. Currently, there is a waiting list for approximately 100 crypts."

Originally slated to cost $2 million when approved in 2021, soaring global inflation has helped drive up the total budget to $4 million, an increase approved by city council Tuesday evening.

While the budget has doubled, the extra costs won’t be taken from municipal taxpayers. There is a reserve fund in place to finance the expansion, which will be repaid as the new crypts and niches are sold.

"We kind of gave the resolution to go forward with the $4 million build, so now it'll take about 18 months," said Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre.

"There's a lot of work involved with engineering and architects but after that we figure it'll be about 18 months before people are able to purchase crypts and niches."

"The additional $1,950,000 would be borrowed from the Cemetery Care & Maintenance Trust Fund to cover the remaining total project cost of $4,000,000 resulting in no property tax levy impact from the project construction," the staff report said.

"This project is expected to generate total net revenue which will be sufficient to fully replenish the … fund of $4,000,000 by 2036."

City staff expects all of the additional space to be sold by 2036.

Read the full report here.