Waterloo city council will be voting on upgrades to the crematorium at Parkview Cemetery and Crematorium, including an additional request for funding.
City staff say they need more money in order to upgrade the University Avenue building to accommodate the replacement of the crematorium’s retorts. Retorts are the machines that do the burning.
The current retorts need to be replaced because they have reached the end of their useful life, according to a report by city staff. They are asking for an additional $850,000 in funding.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change outlines certain standards for crematoriums that need to be met by November 2023.
Initially, $750,000 was allocated for the construction work and the installation of a new retort, the report said.
However, city staff say after design team worked on drawings and took bids for the project, the cost increased to $1.5 million.
The design plans for the crematorium included space for up to two retorts. After taking bids for the project, city staff say the cost increased to $1.5 million, $850,000 more than was initially planned.
City staff say they explored another option including re-using the existing crematorium building and replacing the single retort. However, with this option, staff discovered operational challenges that would also require extra funding above the existing budget.
City staff is recommending a second option, which would see an additional $850,000 transferred from the city’s cemetery reserve fund to the project.
The report said it would give the crematorium a bigger footprint to house the retorts.
If approved, city staff say the project would be fully completed by November 2023.
The city has owned the crematorium for 46 years and it performs about 1,300 cremations a year.
Waterloo city council meets at 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon.
