Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery | More than two years to bury loved ones

Problems are piling up at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery despite the end of the strike. After two years of waiting for an answer on a funeral date, one client even learned that her grandfather and aunt’s files had simply vanished.

“Honestly, I don’t understand what’s happening in this cemetery,” says Émilie Nantel, who describes her journey with management as a real ordeal.

It all started in January 2022, when his grandfather died. His burial, initially scheduled for the following August, was initially postponed due to the state of the premises. “I remember, my uncle had gone the day before. It made no sense, my grandfather would have been buried in a dump. The stones were overgrown by grass,” notes M^me Nantel.

In the following months, his family tried repeatedly to contact the cemetery to schedule a new date. “We called lots of times, but there was never an answer. Everyone couldn’t believe it. »

The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, one of the largest in Canada, was largely closed to the public from mid-January to mid-September last year due to a strike by some of its employees. At one point, more than 300 bodies were awaiting burial. The office workers’ strike lasted until last January.

” There was nothing “

For Émilie Nantel, however, the unimaginable happened more recently, last April. “When I managed to get someone on the line, I was told that there was absolutely nothing in my grandfather’s name. I had invoices with file numbers, but they couldn’t find anything. We even went by date of death, by lots of things. There was nothing,” she says.

The most curious thing, adds the Montrealer, is that her grandfather had already had an appointment and paid for his burial. “Everything was done. […] The whole process that had started had just disappeared. »

Almost at the same time, an identical fate was reserved for his aunt, who died shortly after his grandfather. All the documents had been completed, but the file had been lost.

“I was even told at one point that since my aunt was in the search tool to find a deceased person, that meant she was buried. She never was,” relates Émilie Nantel. By insisting, she finally obtained a burial date for her grandfather and her aunt, July 18, two and a half years later. However, she says she wants to tell her story to change things.

From 27 to 15 employees

The president of the Union of Office Employees of the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, Éric Dufault, is not surprised. “For 15 years, the employer has only had one goal in its graveyard: it is to reduce the payroll, the number of employees, and that means reducing services. There were 27 administrative staff in 2017 and there are now 15,” he emphasizes.

“Cases like that of M^me Nantel, we have discovered dozens since we returned from the strike,” adds the union leader.

At the Notre-Dame Parish Factory, which manages the cemetery, the director of sales and customer service, Éric Choinière, first offers his apologies to the families. “We are very aware of the situation and very sorry. […] We are hopeful that all this will be restored by the end of the year. »

Before the end of the office workers’ strike in January, Mr. Choinière recalls that only “a few managers” were working. “We gave priority to burials, then upon returning from the strike, to bringing out the coffins. At the moment, we have 40 to 50 meetings per day,” he explains.

As for the uncleanliness of the premises, the manager recognizes that “in certain sections, the grass is knee-deep”. “It’s because we had an extremely rainy spring and it’s growing quickly. No matter how many employees we put on, it would be almost impossible to do it all in the same week. »

“There are enough staff, and next week, we have students who will return [pour la tonte]. We are working hard, but a very high level of calls with an accumulated backlog means a lot to serve at the same time,” concludes Mr. Choinière.

With The Canadian Press