Wills and Estates: Making your cremation wishes known
Published 3:00 pm Thursday, October 1, 2026
Earlier this year, the province designated its first ash dispersal site on B.C. waterways in Delta, giving families another option when deciding what to do with cremated remains.
The designation highlights one of the many decisions families can make ahead of time: what to do with their loved one’s cremated remains.
Planning ahead give families more time to consider what their loved ones wanted and how they can be remembered.
Randy Terrace, location manager at Henderson’s Langley Funeral Home, said the first step is having a conversation.
“First of all, discuss their wishes with their family. So that everybody’s on the same page, or on board with it,” he said.
Families can discuss what they want to happen with the cremated remains, whether they want them kept, buried, included in a keepsake, or scattered.
Planning ahead can help prevent families from being left with unanswered questions.
Terrace explained that a person’s wishes can be lost if they are not discussed with family or put in writing.
After decades of working in the funeral industry, both Terrace and Gwen Clark, senior funeral director at Henderson’s, said they have seen more people choosing cremation.
“I feel people generally choose cremation because it’s more cost-effective,” said Clark. “It also seems more environmentally ethical and healthy for our environment,” said Clark.
Cost can be one factor in choosing cremation, but it is not the only one. Religious or cultural traditions, personal preferences, and the flexibility cremation provides can all play a role.
Flexibility might look like dividing cremated remains among relatives who live in different countries, noted Terrace.
Clark said that with the growing Sikh population in the Lower Mainland, some families choose to bring their loved one’s ashes back to India.
Henderson’s also sees families choose more personalized keepsakes, including glass ornaments, jewelry, or turning ashes into a diamond using purified carbon from the cremated remains.
Whatever one decides to do with the ashes, people can prearrange many of the details with a local funeral provider, including arrangements for a final resting place.
Bakerview Memorial Cemetery, Metro Vancouver’s newest large-format cemetery in Aldergrove, offers options such as columbarium niches, in-ground cremation spaces, cremation shrines, and granite post memorials. An urn could also be buried in a space originally intended for a full casket.
Staff at Bakerview also emphasized the importance of making decisions ahead of time.
“Planning ahead gives families the opportunity to make decisions when they have time to think about what they want, rather than having to make everything immediately following a death,” said office manager Marci Alexander.
She also noted that planning can allow families to finance arrangements over time, rather than dealing with the entire cost at once.
For families considering scattering ashes, both Henderson’s and Bakerview recommend checking the rules in their municipality, as guidelines can vary between areas.
Alexander said people should also consider whether scattering is the right choice for their family, as cremated remains cannot be recovered once they are scattered. Alternatively, a permanent memorial can provide a place for relatives and future generations to visit.
While there isn’t one single approach to handling cremated remains, funeral and cemetery representatives agree that people should understand their options and discuss their wishes well in advance.