Funeral Arrangement Guide
Funeral Arrangement Guide
What to expect when meeting with us to make funeral arrangements
1) Who You will Be Meeting With
When we have to meet someone we have never met before it can be kind of uncomfortable. Our family wants to try and ease that process and thus we want you to get to know who we are. When making funeral arrangements you will meet with one of our four funeral directors below, all are part of the McKenzie Family.
George McKenzie
Licensed Funeral Director, Embalmer, Owner
In 1982 George received his Diploma & License as a Funeral Director & Licensed Embalmer and received the "Professionalism Award" for his class year. He took up after his mother and father's profession who owned and operated Hollyburn Funeral Home in West Vancouver. In 1988 George and his wife, Mildred McKenzie, bought Squamish Funeral Chapel. In 2011 George & Mildred received many requests to come back to the North Shore, with that McKenzie Funeral Services was established in 2011. The McKenzie Family has been in the funeral profession since 1946.
Mildred McKenzie
Licensed Funeral Director, Owner
Mildred has been helping and serving families for the past 35 years, directing services and creating unique personalized ceremonies. She has served on the Funeral Service of B.C. Board of Directors for ten years working alongside other funeral directors of the province to try and improve awareness and education across the province.
Mark McKenzie
Community Relations Director & Apprentice Funeral Director
Mark started working for his parents in the summer of 2012. He recently completed his MBA with an emphasis in Management from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. Mark is responsible for arranging community events, educational seminars, and other marketing initiatives.
Mark started his apprenticeship for funeral directing with the Canadian College of Funeral Services in the fall of 2016.
Geoff Fahlman
Apprentice Funeral Director & Embalmer
Geoff started working for McKenzie Funeral Services in the summer of 2015. He is a Certified Accountant who is also the son in law to both George & Mildred McKenzie. He is a very hard worker which is noticed in all aspects of his work in the business.
Geoff started his apprenticeship for funeral directing and embalming with the Canadian College of Funeral Services in the fall of 2016.
2) Determining Who has the Legal Right to Make the Funeral Arrangements
One of the first questions we will ask you and your family when we meet to make funeral arrangements is "Who is the executor and or who has the legal right to make the funeral arrangements?".
By law in British Columbia a funeral provider must obtain permission from the legal representative who has the right to make funeral arrangements for the deceased. The legal representative is decided by an order of priority under Section 5 of the Cremation, Internment and Funeral Services Act. Below you will find the first part of the order of priority.
(a) the personal representative named in the will of the deceased;
(b) the spouse of the deceased;
(c) an adult child of the deceased;
(d) an adult grandchild of the deceased;
(e) if the deceased was a minor, a person who was a guardian who had care and control of the deceased at the date of death;
(f) a parent of the deceased;
To read the entire order of priority and law click the box below:
3) Planning for Cremation or Burial
One of the roles as funeral directors is to listen to you and your family about how you wish to honour and remember your loved one. In the province of British Columbia there are two forms of disposition; burial or cremation. Our family will listen to your wishes as a family to see if you would like to have a celebration of life, a religious funeral service, a graveside service at the cemetery, a simple cremation, or whichever your wishes are. There is no pressure, our job is to listen and to help you and your family out as best we can.
Below are some important questions and facts you should ask concerning both Burial & Cremation:
Cremation Services
Important Items to Consider about Cremation when we meet:
1) Cremation in British Columbia cannot take place until 48 hours after the death has occurred and until all necessary paperwork has been completed by the funeral home.
2) When choosing cremation it is important think about if your family wishes to have a service to honour your loved one. Services can be anything from a visitation followed by cremation, a celebration of life, a traditional funeral followed by cremation, a private family dinner with the urn present, a scattering ceremony, or interring the cremains into a local cemetery. Whichever is your plan be sure that you can rely on our family to help and facilitate your family's wishes.
3) Have you discussed what you wish to do with the Urn/Cremains after cremation; interring into a cemetery, bringing the urn home, or scattering the cremains?
4) Do you wish to be present when the cremation takes place, this isn't mandatory, but if you would like to, please know we own and operate our own crematorium and can facilitate you and your family if they wish to be there for the cremation.
Burial Services
Important Items to Consider about Burial when we meet:
View Burial Price List
List of Local Cemeteries
1) Have you and your family decided on a local cemetery?
2) Did you know that embalming is not required by law, but maybe recommended by our funeral directors in certain situation dependent on the nature of the death.
3) When you meet with our family we will have several casket options to show you and your family ranging from different materials and prices.
4) Our family will provide at every graveside service; seating for 10, a photo of the deceased, umbrella's, a portable sound system for any music you wished to be played, and bottled water.
5) Each cemetery has different bylaws and pricing for plots, we recommend calling and looking at different cemeteries before purchasing. You can find a list of local cemeteries below.
4) Receiving Vital Statistical Information
When a death occurs, one of our roles as funeral directors is to register the death with the Provincial Government through Vital Statistics BC. By doing so we can obtain a disposition permit that will allow us to proceed with burial or cremation, a registration of death, and produce a legal death certificate for the family. When meeting with us you will be asked to provide the following information or you can go ahead and fill in this information below ahead of time and submit it to us online by clicking the button that says "Submit to McKenzie Funeral Services".
Vital Statistical Information
5) Documents to Bring
When meeting with us, we ask if you could try and bring the following documents:
- A picture of the deceased.
- A copy of the first page of the will, showing who the executor is (if applicable).
- A copy of either the deceased's birth certificate or passport (This will be used to help apply for the CPP Death Benefit).
- A copy of their spouses (SIN # and passport of birth certificate, will be used to apply for Survivors Pension, if applicable).
- Any clothing for dressing of the deceased, if this is the family's wishes.
- Any items you wished to be placed with the deceased (note some items can be placed with the deceased but may have to be removed before cremation, just ask our funeral directors on what can and cannot be placed with the deceased).