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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When the city finished construction on the $47,000 columbarium in September it was with the hope that Yellowknifers would use it as an alternative option to traditional burials. So far it has yet to be used.

The columbarium at Lakeview Cemetery was erected in September but has yet to be used since then. The structure can hold the ashes of 100 people, and cost the city $47,000 to build. - Svjetlana Mlinarevic/NNSL photo

“The only person who's telling them it’s available now is Janice McKenna (of McKenna Funeral Home) so I thought doing a followup that might make it better for the city,” said Mickey Brown, the longtime Yellowknife resident who led the drive for the columbarium at Lakeview Cemetery.

“Mickey Brown was the spearhead here who approached council, approached the mayor about the columbarium (in 2008),” said Dave Hurley, acting director of community services.

“So when we were looking at doing it, and we got the funds to do the columbarium,we kept Mickey advised of it. She saw pictures of it, she saw the site, we took her out there and showed her where we were going to put it and we worked with her because she seemed to be the spearhead for it.”

“I just wanted it because there are a lot of people in town who still have their ashes in their home,” said Brown. “They don’t want to go into the ground. So they were just sitting there, so maybe some of those people will move those ashes into the columbarium.”

The grey and black marble structure holds 100 niches, 50 in the back and 50 in the front. To have one’s ashes placed in the columbarium costs $379 compared to a traditional burial of $578, according to Hurley. Once remains are placed in the columbarium only the city has keys to access the remains.

“I think the columbarium will be around for a number of years and where we placed the columbarium there is room for expansion and we purposely did it that way so when you’re looking at the columbarium the only thing you'll see are the trees or the sky. It was purposely done that way. And we have enough room there to put in a couple of more for sure,” he said.

The city digs an average of 20 graves per year prior to winter in preparation for possible burials. As the 56-year-old cemetery expands, the columbarium can be viewed as a way to reduce land use.

Another option that the city has not considered due to cost is a mausoleum, something funeral home director Janice McKenna sees as being essential to a cemetery.

“I would like to see more of a mausoleum so that there is a building particularly for above ground burial for cremated remains so that people have a place to go inside to visit their love ones who have died,” said McKenna, noting being away form the elements makes visiting a deceased loved one easier in the winter.

McKenna would also like the city to build a crematorium at the mausoleum as she now ships bodies to Edmonton for cremation.

“(We haven’t looked at a crematorium) at this point in time. Probably the cost factor is one thing. Right now, when most people are cremated their bodies are sent to the south so the cost would probably be one thing we have to look into but at this point in time there has been no discussion,” said Hurley.

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