The suspension of a union leader, downsizing and a dire financial situation are having a severe impact on maintenance and customer service at Canada’s largest cemetery. A circumstance that is leading to a flurry of criticism from relatives of the deceased, some of whom would even consider ending their ancestors’ presence at the site, Le Devoir learned.
Tensions rose a notch Tuesday between the employer and clerks at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery at the foot of Mount Royal, who were holding a day of strikes to denounce the five-day suspension of their union’s president, Eric Dufault. The latter would have been suspended for his “unruliness”, but the union sees this more as a reaction in the context of a five-year industrial dispute over wages on offer.
“Basically, it’s a hammer blow after a situation that should have just led to a meeting between the boss and the employee,” notes Mr Dufault in an interview with Le Devoir. Around him, unionized workers demonstrated loudly at the entrance to the cemetery on Tuesday.
Several small flags, highlighting this union’s short strike, were also placed at the various entrances to this huge cemetery with a large drop. Its members will resume activities on Wednesday, but the basic problems remain. The number of office workers has fallen from 23 to 18 since 2020, while there are now 93 employees versus 125 two years ago to tend this 139-acre site.
This leads to disappointment from customers when tending to the graves of their buried loved ones and complaints that cannot be addressed quickly due to a lack of sufficient manpower, notes Mr. Dufault. “We’re overburdened, that’s not enough,” the union leader says.
degradation
During Tuesday afternoon’s handover, longtime employees at the site said they had never seen this cemetery in such poor condition. Tall grass and plants tower over several tombs whose engraved names are hidden, while marmot burrows proliferate throughout the site, disturbing many of the deceased’s relatives.
“I don’t even want to go to the cemetery anymore because it makes me so sad,” says Karine Payton, whose mother was buried in this cemetery ten years ago. When she last visited here, she says, she didn’t even recognize her mother’s grave, which was covered by the greenery. She also notes that the upkeep of this cemetery, which she once described as “beautiful,” has continued to deteriorate over time, particularly this year.
“It’s degrading,” adds Ms Payton, whose sister said in an interview that she had been trying in recent months to get her complaints heard by the cemetery administration, but to no avail. Another lady we met in the hallways on Tuesday afternoon broke down in tears when we asked her about the poor maintenance of the premises, which she described as a “lack of respect” towards the deceased’s loved ones.
“Honestly, it’s pathetic. I was shocked as a citizen, ”says Ville-Marie independent councilor Serge Sasseville, whose all deceased relatives were buried in this cemetery, where the family had a lot since 1914. At the time, he was planning to pay tribute earlier this month to his spouse, who died in 2018 while noting the poor maintenance of “the largest cemetery in Montreal.”
“This year it struck me that I had never seen the cemetery in this state,” notes the elected official, who intends to raise the issue in mid-September at the next meeting of the Table de Concertation du Mont Royal, to which he belongs a member.
In this context, the employees of the cemetery administration are receiving increasing numbers of calls from people who want to transfer the bodies of their relatives to another cemetery in order to then sell their property to the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in a process that the “retrocession” learned Le Devoir. “The volume of calls is much more present” in terms of such requests, confirms Mr. Dufault. “It’s settled. “Information that the cemetery could not validate on Tuesday.
“The financial situation will never improve with the loss of customers and cemetery,” adds the union leader, who reports of a “vicious circle” in which this cemetery, which opened in 1854, gets caught.
“Green Plan” that leaves you perplexed
While criticism is piling up on social media and on the answering machine from employees of the cemetery office, the latter argues that he is only applying the “Green Plan” he has drawn up with a view to sustainable development in 2021. The lawns of the site with “a meadow of native plants “.
“Inevitably, fewer lawns are mowed than in the past. We’re letting the vegetation grow more,” argues cemetery spokesman Daniel Granger, who believes “there needs to be some education with people about this ecological approach.”
However, unionized workers counter that this “green plan” serves more as an excuse to reduce the number of maintenance workers in a context in which this cemetery recorded total losses of nearly $103 million between 2008 and 2019, ie about 8.6 million per year. “The green plan is a sham,” says Éric Dufault.
Joining Le Devoir, François Chapdelaine, president of the Association of Christian Cemeteries of Quebec, points out that many cemeteries in the province need to address “a greater ecological sensitivity” while meeting the expectations of their customers. “It’s not always easy,” he says. As for the financial challenges, these can lead to a reduction in opening hours, even a reduction in maintenance of the premises in some cemeteries, he notes, but few are threatened with closure. “We are committed to sustainability. »