Remembrance Day | The National Field of Honor in financial difficulty

Veterans cemetery in Pointe-Claire calls for support from Ottawa

Recording significant operating deficits for several years, the National Field of Honor, the Pointe-Claire cemetery where 22,500 military personnel of all ranks are buried, is requesting help from the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure its sustainability.

The problem is that a good part of the cemetery’s income comes from the sale of land. However, as there are fewer and fewer former soldiers from the Second World War and the Korean War still alive, there are fewer and fewer funerals to come.

“There are a lot fewer burials than there were 20 or 30 years ago,” underlines retired Lieutenant-Colonel Michel Crowe, outgoing president of the Last Post Fund. In the 1990s, there could be more than 300 funerals per year. 8 or 9 years ago, we dropped below 200. Now, it’s around 120, 130 per year. As costs and wages rise. »

Other military personnel who were part of the Canadian Armed Forces after the Korean War may be buried on the Field of Honor. But they are younger and the annual number of deaths is lower. “Those we call modern veterans often prefer to be buried in their hometown, with their family,” adds Edouard Pahud, general director of the Last Post Fund.

Mr. Pahud indicates that he expects, for the 2023 financial year, a deficit of approximately $200,000 on an operating budget of $458,000. “In 2022, our deficit was $140,000 and in 2021, $95,000,” he explains. For now, we are covering our deficits with our reserves. »

“We would like to succeed in convincing the Government of Canada to take over and assume the costs of maintaining the National Field of Honour,” said Michel Crowe, who worked in the office of the Judge Advocate General within the Armed forces.

With the exception of two cemeteries in Halifax and Esquimalt in British Columbia, the federal government does not own the gravesites where veterans are buried.

Even Ottawa’s famous Beechwood Cemetery, where the National Military Cemetery is located, is managed by a non-profit foundation, as is the case with Field of Honour.

Result: Canadian veterans, regardless of the periods in which they served, are scattered. There are some 250,000 of them in more than 8,000 cemeteries in Canada.

Veterans Affairs Canada in the know

At the Department of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), we are aware of the financial difficulties of the Field of Honor.

“The Last Post Fund plays an important role in ensuring that veterans receive the recognition they deserve. We will continue to work with them to ensure that the sacrifices of Canadian veterans are properly honored through the maintenance of these graves and headstones,” says Mikaela Harrison, communications director for Minister Ginette Petitpas. Taylor. Edouard Pahud expects to have a meeting with the minister. “It’s in the plans,” he said.

On the VAC side, we assure “working in conjunction with the Last Post Fund to determine the course of action” on this issue.

“To ACC’s knowledge, no other cemetery has requested its assistance,” adds spokesperson Marc Lescoutre. There are hundreds of Fields of Honor across Canada that are privately owned and operated by communities, churches, non-profits and for-profit organizations. »

Renovations of stelae

VAC administers a few programs related to grave sites and burial of former soldiers. For example, its Funeral and Burial Program – managed by the Last Post Fund – helps pay the costs of funerals, burials and memorials for certain military personnel, particularly those who have lived in precarious financial conditions.

In the last five years, ACC has also restored or replaced more than 110,000 funerary markers across Canada (11,050 in Quebec) thanks to a $24.4 million program. The Field of Honor of Pointe-Claire received 1.3 million as part of this project.

“This allowed us to replace a few broken tombstones and above all to level several of the plots of land on which the ground had subsided,” says Michel Crowe.

However, this project is now completed and ACC has an annual budget of 1.25 million for the maintenance of the steles. This sum was deemed insufficient in a report by internal auditors published in April 2023. The authors estimated that such a sum would result in “another backlog of maintenance work”. But ACC persists and signs. “ACC continues to seek efficiencies within its $1.25 million annual budget,” we were told.

At the Canadian Legion, we say we want more. “We appreciate the significant reduction in the maintenance backlog recorded from 2018 to 2023, and we are equally pleased to learn that it has been reduced by double the expected number,” says spokesperson Nujma Bond. However, knowing the work that remains to be done, we hope that the upcoming budget negotiations will result in adequate and permanent funding to facilitate care in perpetuity, ensuring a worthy remembrance of those who served our country. »