Grieving families struggle to find funeral services in B.C.

Dawn Eby-Quast was in the devastating situation of having just lost her husband when she found herself in another dilemma.

She had no access to funeral services in her home city of Prince Rupert, B.C.

"I remember standing in the hallway outside the ER … all by myself, thinking, 'Now what do I do?'" said Eby-Quast, 76. "I had no clue what I was supposed to do." 

Now Eby-Quast, whose husband Lloyd Arthur Quast died at 82 in Prince Rupert Regional Hospital on Feb. 9, is calling on the government to provide more support for people in the aftermath of a loved one's death — particularly residents in more remote areas of the province where funeral services may be scarce. 

There are also calls within the funeral services industry for government to provide more support and ease the licensing process.

The 13,000-plus residents of Prince Rupert were left without a local provider when Ferguson Funeral Home closed. The actual timing of its closure remains unclear. Consumer Protection B.C. said the funeral home informed it of its operational status in late 2021 and provided business closure forms in August 2022. 

Mayor Herb Pond says there are no burial services in Prince Rupert anymore. 

The closest option is MacKay's Funeral Services in Terrace, about a 140-kilometre drive east.

When Eby-Quast's husband died on a Friday, she had to wait until Monday to call MacKay's, which isn't open on weekends.

Transporting the body was the major problem.

"My stepsons were going to build a box and take their dad in the box to Terrace to get cremated because that's what we needed to do," she said. 

Eby-Quast and her two stepsons were spared this when Northern Health told them an autopsy was required to confirm the cause of her husband's death. The health authority transported his body to Prince George, about 500 kilometres away, and then to the funeral home in Terrace. 

But the many challenges Eby-Quast faced while grieving her husband of 28 years have left her wondering why more support isn't available. 

"This wasn't a pleasant experience to have to go through all this," she said. "I really wish there would have been somebody [who] had given me a piece of paper that said, 'This is what you need to do today and tomorrow.'"