The Champ d’honneur national, Pointe-Claire’s cemetery where 22,500 soldiers of all ranks are buried, has been recording significant operating deficits for several years, and is asking the Department of Veterans Affairs for help to ensure its long-term survival.
The problem is that much of the cemetery’s income comes from land sales. And with fewer and fewer WWII and Korean War veterans still alive, there are fewer and fewer funerals to come.
There are far fewer burials than 20 or 30 years ago,” says retired Lieutenant-Colonel Michel Crowe, outgoing president of the Last Post Fund. In the 1990s, there could be over 300 funerals a year. 8 or 9 years ago, we were down to under 200, and now it’s around 120 or 130 a year. At the same time, costs and salaries are rising.
Other soldiers who served in the Canadian Armed Forces after the Korean War can be laid to rest in the Field of Honour. But they are younger, and the annual death toll is lower. “So-called modern veterans often prefer to be buried in their hometowns, with their families,” adds Edouard Pahud, Executive Director of the Last Post Fund.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE
Portion of the Champ d’honneur national where many visitors are expected this Saturday, Remembrance Day.
Mr. Pahud says he expects, for fiscal year 2023, a deficit of around $200,000 on an operating budget of $458,000. “In 2022, our deficit was $140,000 and in 2021, $95,000,” he says. For the time being, we’re covering our deficits with our reserves.”
“We’d like to convince the Government of Canada to take over the maintenance of the National Field of Honour,” says Michel Crowe, who worked in the Office of the Judge Advocate General in the Armed Forces.
With the exception of two cemeteries in Halifax and Esquimalt, British Columbia, the federal government does not own the gravesites where veterans are laid to rest.
Even Ottawa’s famous Beechwood Cemetery, home to the National Military Cemetery, is managed by a non-profit foundation, as is the Field of Honour.
As a result, Canada’s veterans, regardless of the periods in which they served, are scattered far and wide. Some 250,000 of them can be found in over 8,000 cemeteries across Canada.
Veterans Affairs Canada in the know
Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is aware of the Champ d’honneur’s financial difficulties.
“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 honoured through the maintenance of these graves and headstones,” says Mikaela Harrison, Director of Communications for Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. Edouard Pahud expects to have a meeting with the Minister. “It’s in the plans,” he says.
VAC assures us that it is “working with the Last Post Fund to determine how to proceed” on this issue.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE
Veterans of both world wars are also buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery. Their remains are interred alongside those of other comrades at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.
“To VAC’s knowledge, no other cemetery has asked for our help,” adds spokesman Marc Lescoutre. There are hundreds of fields of honour across Canada that are privately owned and managed by communities, churches, non-profit and for-profit organizations.”
Stelae renovation
VAC administers a number of programs related to the burial and grave sites of former soldiers. For example, its Funeral and Burial Program – managed by the Last Post Fund – helps pay the costs of funerals, burials and headstones for certain military personnel, particularly those who have lived in precarious financial circumstances.
Over the past five years, VAC has also restored or replaced more than 110,000 grave markers across Canada (11,050 in Quebec), thanks to a $24.4 million program. The Pointe-Claire Field of Honor received $1.3 million as part of this project.
“This enabled us to replace a few broken headstones and, above all, to level several of the plots where the ground had subsided,” says Michel Crowe.
However, this project is now complete, and VAC has an annual budget of $1.25 million for the upkeep of the steles. This sum was deemed insufficient in an internal audit report published in April 2023. The authors felt that such a sum would result in “another backlog of maintenance work”. However, VAC remains adamant. “VAC continues to seek efficiencies within its $1.25 million annual budget,” we were told.
At the Canadian Legion, they say they want more. “We appreciate the significant reduction in the maintenance backlog recorded from 2018 to 2023, and are equally pleased to learn that it has been reduced by double the number anticipated,” 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 have served our country.”
