Shawn O'Hara: Welcome everyone. My guest today is Colin Benesch, who is a funeral director and embalmer at Earth's Option Cremation and Burial Services here in Victoria, BC. He is the son of the founder and a third generation funeral service professional. Colin holds the role of location manager and funeral director at Earth's Option, which is known for its environmentally friendly options and community focused approach to funeral and burial services on Vancouver Island. Welcome, Colin. Thanks for joining me today. 

Colin Benesch: Thank you for the opportunity, Shawn. I appreciate you having me. 

Shawn O'Hara: So what do you do? 

Colin Benesch: I am a funeral director and location manager for Earth's Option. That entails a wide variety of tasks, but in short, as a funeral director, we serve the folks here in the community of Victoria for all their funeral service needs, be it a cremation, witness cremation, traditional, or green. We service basically from Chemainus and south, and we are always happy to help the Gulf Islands as well if folks need that service. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great. You are probably in a heavily regulated industry. Is it the federal, provincial, municipal, or what kind of regulations affect your industry? 

Colin Benesch: We are extremely regulated, and rightfully so. We deal with a sensitive topic, and we are dealing with vulnerable clients as well. Our families are in very vulnerable states when they come to us. We are heavily regulated on all levels of government. 

On a federal level, it is more generic, but there is still oversight. Provincially, we are very heavily regulated. Municipally, we are very heavily regulated, and it goes down to Transport Canada to CVRDs and CRDs. Basically all walks of government life regulate us at some capacity. 

Shawn O'Hara: What are some examples of those regulations, or maybe ones that would either interfere in what you are doing or that really have to direct what you do? 

Colin Benesch: They all have a very real impact, whatever level they are on. On a federal level, Transport Canada is one of the bigger agencies we work with where we need regulations and approval and have to get accreditation from them for having a secure cargo loading facility and secure cargo representatives as staff. That is kind of a federal level one. 

Provincially, our licensing is done as licensed funeral directors and embalmers, and all that licensing is done through the province of BC through the BC Funeral Association, along with the ITA program and the Canadian College of Funeral Services. Those three entities work together to produce our funeral director licensing. 

Colin Benesch: Funeral school is a two year program. It is an apprenticeship while you are doing the actual academics online. Once you have finished each year, you have to write an ITA exam showing competence in the field. It is a very independent test. 

It is not overseen by the BC Funeral Association or the College of Funeral Services. ITA makes its own questions, sends them to the funeral director students, and we have to get an 80% to get our licensing. 

Shawn O'Hara: So it is quite strict and quite a process. It is a two year program, you said. 

Colin Benesch: Very much so. In that two year program, the students are taking all of their courses online by correspondence, and then they also have their on the job training. They are expected to work 40 hours a week on the job and then do two to three courses per week through the Canadian College of Funeral Service. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is fascinating. So Transport Canada, that is, I guess, moving bodies, because that is what you do then. 

Colin Benesch: Yes, exactly. That is a newer thing too that never used to be as regulated. It came in about six or seven years ago that Transport Canada wanted funeral homes to have separate accreditation to be recognized. Since they rolled that ruling out, all domestic and international shipping of deceased people has to be done by an accredited funeral home. 

More and more are getting their accreditation slowly but surely, but it has definitely been something that got sprung on us a few years back. A lot of folks were not prepared for it and were not ready for that rule change to go through. 

Shawn O'Hara: Do you know if there was something that prompted that? Usually there is. 

Colin Benesch: Typically there is. There are no horror stories that I have heard specifically that made that one come to pass, but I think there have been a lot of conversations around bad things happening in the States and some horror stories coming out of there, especially during the COVID times. A lot of the government agencies said, “Okay, let us try to tighten up where we can as we can.” 

Of course, as with most government agencies, they do not speak to each other. One changes a rule and nobody knows about it until they get told no. 

Shawn O'Hara: What about municipally? How is that affecting you? 

Colin Benesch: Municipally, we have zoning regulations for where we are allowed to have our funeral homes, along with zoning regulations for crematoriums and cemeteries. Those have very real application in what we do. The most prominent one in that sphere is definitely crematoriums. 

The Lower Mainland is a great example. There is no municipality in the Lower Mainland that will allow for a new crematorium to be built unless you go as far as Chilliwack. Your options of starting a new crematorium on the Lower Mainland are very slim unless you go extremely rural. In that case, your travel time is going to become exorbitant and a big issue for serving those funeral homes in the Greater Vancouver area. That is one example of how municipal governments can, with their zoning regulations, basically stifle our profession. 

Shawn O'Hara: Why are they limiting them? 

Colin Benesch: Nobody wants to buy a house by a crematorium. There is the environmental aspect of it, and there is what you could call the “ick factor.” A lot of folks just do not want to have that nearby. We have a crematorium here on the Island, and there is a crematorium that has been in Saanich for many years, and there have been houses around there for the entire time it has been there. 

They still get complaints from neighbors who buy houses nearby the cemetery and the crematorium that have been pre-established. Nobody wants to be a neighbor of a funeral home, but everyone needs a funeral home. It is one of those hard realities of the world where nobody wants to live near a crematorium, but they are all eventually going to need the services of a crematorium, and they are going to be upset when that service is four weeks delayed because of volume and there are no new crematoriums being made to service that. 

Shawn O'Hara: And Chilliwack is growing, so that will fade soon too. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. The problem too is as these cities get bigger, Abbotsford is a great example. They allowed crematoriums for many years, and then as they got bigger, they said, “No. We are too densely populated now. We are building up, we are not building out, so we do not want them anymore.” They have put up the red flag and pushed industry out further. 

That has meant more travel time, more costs, and more delays for families, and it is a sad reality. 

Shawn O'Hara: Does that mean that they are closing them, or are they just there until they end up closing? 

Colin Benesch: They are basically grandfathering them. If I were to purchase a crematorium on the Lower Mainland that decided to go for sale, I could purchase that company, keep the crematorium, and keep running it. They are just not allowing any new ones to be built. 

The real concern comes if some of these companies decide to sell their crematoriums for whatever reason. Hopefully they stay within the profession so we can make sure that they are still operating. If we lose that crematorium and it gets developed into a condo, we are never going to get it back. Greater Vancouver is a great example of where there are not enough crematoriums for the population and for the cremation rate. It would be detrimental to lose one of their machines. Right now it is a huge impact. 

Shawn O'Hara: This is a province with a million people and about a fifth of the population are over 65. 

Colin Benesch: We are the highest cremation rate in North America in BC, which is something that does not get discussed a lot. Vancouver Island specifically, where we are, is the highest in North America, but BC as a province is the highest jurisdiction as well. It is significant, and the population is of the older demographic and that is increasing. 

As a profession, we are not able to keep up with the amount of crematoriums, and because of how heavily regulated we are, staffing levels have become a concern as well. We can, on average, graduate about 50 funeral directors a year, but our profession is not retaining them. We are having a high turnover rate because of the stress of the job. 

Colin Benesch: The task of everything and the emotional wear on the funeral directors is huge. We have a high turnover rate of new apprentices coming in and not being able to survive the program and get through and get their licensing. It is a concern for the future. Will we have enough funeral directors to serve the population growth that we are facing? 

Shawn O'Hara: It might seem obvious, but what are some of the stresses? 

Colin Benesch: The stresses are significant, and we need some alternatives. Certain provinces like Alberta have a multi tiered scenario where people can get licensing through two avenues instead of just one. In BC, there is only one. Toronto has multiple avenues for funeral directors as well. 

In provinces like that, they are graduating about 100 to 150 students a year, whereas in BC we can do a maximum of 55 because of regulations from different levels. We cannot do any more. Of that 55, we are maybe lucky to have 20 to 30 of them actually graduate, and of that 20 to 30, we are lucky to have 15 to 20 of them left after five years in the profession. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is high attrition. 

Colin Benesch: Very much so. 

Shawn O'Hara: Is it the stress of the job, dealing with bodies and emotions, or do they even know what they are getting into when people choose this as a profession? 

Colin Benesch: There are definitely a lot of factors with why the turnover rate is so high. One of the big ones I always tell anybody who is interested in getting into the profession is that if you are trying to get rich and want to have a well paying job, funeral work is not for you. You need a real passion and drive to serve your community, the grieving families, and to really excel at wanting to be there for people and help them through the toughest time in their life. 

If you are in it to get rich, you are in the wrong profession. Lawyers and doctors are always looking, so go join those ranks. As a funeral director, you will have a livable wage. You will be paid a decent amount to have a decent life, but you will never be a millionaire riding on private jets. 

Shawn O'Hara: Even though we all go at some time. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. I think the big misconception is that the public seems to have this idea that funeral homes make a lot of money. Some of the big corporate ones do make a lot of money, but it is because it is a numbers game. They have a lot of locations across North America, and they are able to make that business model work. 

A lot of the independent funeral homes are making enough just to make sure that their lights stay on, their staff are well paid, and they are able to maintain their staffing levels. That is pretty much it. There are no private jets and yachts. It is very much for the people, and it is a service industry. We are very service focused. We are here to help families through the hardest time of their life. 

Colin Benesch: I think that is a big misconception as well. The stress for the students and why I think attrition is so high is that everyone comes in with great intentions, but the expectations of what is required for the role are high. We have to be that pillar of calm and stability for families in the toughest time of their lives. Sadly, we are human too, and we feel emotion and sadness as well. 

We deal with the worst of the world, and we see heartbreak and the most tragic moments, and we have to be the pillar of calm and stability for that family in that time. That takes a toll on a person. 

Shawn O'Hara: When the shift is over, that could be hard on the directors. 

Colin Benesch: Very much so. As a profession, funeral directors get lost in the conversation of PTSD. It is slowly coming around amongst us in the profession. We are starting to be more open and talk about it amongst colleagues. Historically, funeral directors had a very high alcoholism rate, and it was because many had nowhere to turn, and we were always lost in the conversation. 

Everyone focuses on first responders for PTSD, but nobody remembers the “last responders,” as we like to call ourselves. 

Shawn O'Hara: I guess maybe because people view first responders, military, and police as seeing or dealing with the immediate after effects of violence or the actual violence themselves, and they think funeral directors see things when it is all clean and tidy. But I guess not. 

Colin Benesch: That is a big misconception. Yes, the police and the military see the immediate violence right then and there, but guess who has to make that person presentable for their family and make sure that they are in a state where their family can spend time with them? You walk into a crime scene, see someone deceased, call the BC Coroner, and they come and pick up the body. That is the end of the PTSD for that officer. 

My team has to spend multiple hours restoring this person and bringing them back to an appearance that is respectable for their family to spend that last quality moment with them. 

Shawn O'Hara: That must be a skill too, doing that with bodies. 

Colin Benesch: Very much so. Embalming used to be very popular back in the day, and it still has its place. It is used very much for restorative purposes for violent accidents and tragedies when the family still needs to have a final goodbye. 

Shawn O'Hara: Back to the crematorium issue and the shortage, what can be done about that? 

Colin Benesch: There are many different discussions going on. My father and I have been big proponents and have been driving for the BC government to legalize aquamation, which is an alternative to flame cremation. It would allow us to open aquamation units in areas that are no longer zoned for crematoriums because there are no emissions. It uses water and potassium to achieve the same result as flame cremation. 

The technical name for it is alkaline hydrolysis, if anybody wants to look that up. It came out of Europe many years ago and has been used for humans for quite a while now. It is quite popular across the US and Europe. It is in most of Canada now. BC is one of the few provinces that does not have it legalized yet. My father and I have been lobbying the government for over eight years to get it done, and we are slowly making progress. Anybody who is interested, please write your MLA and let them know that you want aquamation legalized. 

Shawn O'Hara: How does the process work? 

Colin Benesch: It is the same as flame cremation in that the body gets put into the aquamation unit instead of a flame retort. Instead of using fossil fuels and fire to burn the body, we use water and potassium to dissolve the tissue. It is the same thing that would happen naturally when you bury a body straight in the soil, where it takes about two to three years for the body to naturally break down. 

This is happening in a perfect environment with perfect conditions to make that process happen over three to four hours, leaving the same end result for the family of cremated remains. They will just be a little bit larger in volume and not tinged by fire. Depending on the casket, some cremated remains can come out gray or brown or black, depending on the casket they are cremated in. Aquamation would remove that, and everything would come out nice and pure. 

Shawn O'Hara: So a bigger urn then. 

Colin Benesch: Slightly in volume. The urn size should still be suitable with standard urns, but there would be a little bit more volume. 

Shawn O'Hara: Why is the BC government slow or reluctant? 

Colin Benesch: The conversation has shifted over my eight year journey. It went from originally us in the profession being the only ones pushing for it, and me as an independent being the only one really driving this. They just kind of left it as, “You are just one person making some noise.” 

As it grew and became bigger, more people started to sign on, and we got a lot of public involvement. We started the Aquamation Coalition of BC and began reaching out to more groups and people looking for environmentally conscious ways. The voice has grown over the years, and now the BC government is well aware of it. It is very much on their radar. I am hopeful to see something in the next three to four years as legalization happens. I think it is a matter of when, not if. The government is on board that this needs to happen. 

Shawn O'Hara: When we first met, you had a booth at an event that was focusing on everything relating to death and planning, death doulas, and so on. You had a petition there for this. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. That is something I have been speaking on publicly, doing lots of different events and speaking to anybody who will listen. I give out flyers at every trade show I am at asking for support for aquamation. In the time and age that we are in, where we are all trying to do our best to care for nature, the environment, and the climate, I believe strongly in this. 

If every profession could bring a solution like we are bringing with aquamation to the table, we could really make a dent in climate change overnight. It is sad to see that we have the slow wheels of government to make these things a reality. We require legislation changes to make it happen. 

Colin Benesch: That has always been my argument. If every profession came together right now and said, “We have a solution similar to aquamation to help better our profession, whatever it may be,” we could really tackle this overnight. But if we all have to go through an eight year process to get this legalized and to get the ball over the finish line where we can actually do the process, we might be waiting until 2080 before we have made a meaningful impact. 

Shawn O'Hara: The government can be so progressive in some areas and not in others. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. I think it comes with the territory of being a large entity like the government. They have a lot of things to do and a lot of hats to wear and important issues to pay attention to. Now, with technology and younger generations being really forward thinking, there is room to improve some of these processes. 

If we have solid, proven, evidence based technologies and solutions to some of these environmental issues, we should be able to speed up the process to get them legalized. For example, in the case of aquamation, it is legal in California, which has the highest environmental standards in North America. 

Colin Benesch: For the government to do a reassessment of the same environmental standards here in BC to make sure they meet their criteria seems unnecessary. They should know that California's criteria are more strict, and if it met the standards there, do we really need another assessment here? We could save money and speed up the process by removing that step. 

Shawn O'Hara: I have heard of a few industries outside of yours that have had issues where things are approved in California, which is so strict, and still it is so bureaucratic here. It is a bureaucracy, not even a certain environmental standard. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. My suggestion to the BC government, and this would be for any political party, is to make a group of government employees who look at environmental regulations in other jurisdictions and say, “You meet our criteria, and you do not.” If a jurisdiction passes an environmental law and they meet the criteria somewhere else that we trust, maybe we can speed it up because they have already met standards in a trusted place. 

It should not be carte blanche, but we definitely have some good partners across North America that we could look at to have that model with. 

Shawn O'Hara: With aquamation, is that relieving pressure on crematoriums because new ones can be opened, or do they have the same municipal issues? 

Colin Benesch: That is still to be determined in BC. In California, they legalized aquamation not so much because of the same zoning problem we have in BC, where municipalities say no to crematoriums. There, everything is built up, and it is hard to create new crematoriums. The Mayo Clinic was the real driving force in California to legalize aquamation. 

They have a 40 story hospital. To put a crematorium at the bottom and have a stack go through 40 stories would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, they put aquamation units every five floors, and they do not need stacks because they can go down through the waste management system. No stacks are required, so it was much more cost effective to put those systems on those floors. 

Colin Benesch: The first province in Canada that legalized aquamation was Saskatchewan. The gentleman who did that there had the same problem, where the municipality said, “No, we will not zone for crematoriums.” He said, “Great. What about an aquamation unit?” They said, “No problem. Never heard of it, do not care, go for it.” He started that, and it was able to alleviate the stress for him and offer something different to families as well. 

Shawn O'Hara: So it is the air quality then. 

Colin Benesch: Yes, that is one of the biggest concerns, air quality and emissions in general. That is why aquamation is a great alternative. It removes that concern. 

Shawn O'Hara: What happens to the water? 

Colin Benesch: Depending on the jurisdiction, it can either be tanked off through waste management and put into biomedical waste, or it can be put into the waste management system itself, depending on what the municipal regulations say. It is really dependent. In Victoria, we have a waste management center that cleans everything before it gets dumped into the ocean, so I am optimistic that we might not have to send it to medical waste, but that is to be determined. 

Every jurisdiction is doing it differently. 

Shawn O'Hara: And that would relieve the pressure then when that happens. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. The biggest thing, especially in Victoria, is that we have quite a few crematoriums and are not having the same woes as the mainland yet. For me, it is really about giving families options. We have a professional obligation to give everybody all the options for what they can and cannot do. 

A lot of people are concerned about the environment, and if we can cut out emissions and make it a little bit greener for the environment and for the community, I think a lot of people in Victoria would want that for themselves. That is the legacy they have lived and the lifestyle they have always protected and guarded, and we should be able to honor that in life and in death. 

Shawn O'Hara: What makes cremation or aquamation so popular? We have a lot of seniors here, which would explain why, but why is it so popular? 

Colin Benesch: There are many factors, but I think there are two big ones. The first is that we are a destination city. Victoria is known as a place where people come to retire. It is not always home, not where people were born and raised, and they do not always have deep roots here. Cremation is an easy way to have the body cremated and then send the ashes back home to Alberta, Ontario, the US, or wherever they may be from so they can be laid to rest with their family grave there. 

The second big factor is cost. Cremation is a tenth of the price of burial. The average cremation on Vancouver Island is between $2,000 and $3,000. A burial is between $9,000 and $12,000 on the low end. If you have a big service, it can get up to $20,000, depending on how many people and how big the service is. Cost is a big factor. 

Shawn O'Hara: Are there any new graveyards being opened up? 

Colin Benesch: In BC, there have been a lot of green burial cemeteries opening, and that has been the latest push. I am a huge proponent of green burial. When my father started the company was when green burial first became a thing in BC and in Victoria, and we were involved early. Royal Oak Cemetery specifically was a pioneer in Canada to start green burial. They were the first to do it, the first to get it legalized and recognized, and we worked hand in hand with them to serve that population right away. 

It is wonderful and absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend that anybody who is traveling in Victoria and is curious go for a walk in the green burial section of Royal Oak Cemetery. It is wonderful. We are building protected forest under the legal right of memorialization. They will never be developed or changed, and we are making brand new, beautiful forests with native plants and native trees that will benefit our communities and environment for many generations to come. 

Shawn O'Hara: What is a green burial? 

Colin Benesch: Great question, Shawn. The difference between green burial and traditional burial is simple. In traditional burial, we have a concrete liner that goes around the casket that the body is placed in, and the concrete lid goes on top. We then fill the rest with soil and put grass on top, with the headstone either laying down or standing up. That is a traditional burial. 

With green burial, we remove the concrete liner. The body has to be in a fully biodegradable container. There is no embalming, no artificial clothing, no plastics, and no glass. It has to be as natural as possible. We bury the person in straight soil, and once the burial is done, we plant trees, shrubs, bushes, and native plants right on top of the person. We are repopulating that natural forest. At Royal Oak, they have some Garry oaks and arbutus trees planted there, which are very beautiful and natural plants for our ecosystem. 

Shawn O'Hara: Does that mean a lot more bodies can go in there because after a hundred years there is more space, or how does that work? 

Colin Benesch: No. As we are filling the graves and planting the forest, we are not going to take down one of the trees to plant more people. If anything, it will spread out like a regular cemetery would. Instead of a field of grass and stones, it will be a forest that gets bigger and bigger. 

The purpose is that we are building protected forests that will never be touched. As much as people have parks and the government has parkland, there is always a chance that something could happen where it might not always be a park, sad as that is to say. With green burial sections, they are protected under multiple laws. They are not just protected as parks; they are protected as places of memorialization, so they have another level of security to make sure nothing happens to them. 

Shawn O'Hara: That has always been a thing for me. Being in something that will never degrade and that could be dug up in 10,000 years and not much has changed is not my thing. I buried a cat once in a towel, and I thought, “This is the way it should be, the way it was done from the beginning.” At that same event, there was a woman who wove coffins that I thought was quite interesting. That would work as well. 

Colin Benesch: Exactly. Those are great for green burials. They can be anything from a hand woven casket, like she was offering, to a mushroom casket that biodegrades super fast, to a simple basic shroud where it is just a hemp cloth that wraps around the body and is as basic and natural as it gets. There really are options for everybody. 

It really comes down to whether it is a financial option for you. It is more expensive than cremation, though not more expensive than traditional burial. It is still a bigger cost than what many people expect because cremation has become the standard comparison. 

Shawn O'Hara: Just without the casket and so on, but still a significant enough cost plus the plot of land. 

Colin Benesch: The plot is the big one. That is where a lot of folks get confused, because the funeral home and the cemetery are two separate entities. Our bill for a basic graveside service is around $2,700 for just the basics, and that is without picking the casket. Depending on the casket, it could be as small as the hemp shroud at about $250, or as high as the mushroom casket, which is beautiful and fancy and about $6,000. The variation is large. 

Then the plot is also a big expense. Grave plots can be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the cemetery and the location. 

Shawn O'Hara: Are there any voluntary standards, like industry certifications that you have adopted, that would separate you from other planners and funeral homes? 

Colin Benesch: Almost all funeral homes have to follow the same certifications and standards for a lot of the basic things. Embalmer certification and funeral director certification require the same level of education across the board for anyone running a funeral home here in BC, and that is managed by the BC Consumer Protection Authority. They make sure that everyone has their license and that it is all up to date, including their funeral home license. 

When it comes to specialized certifications, we are members of CANA, which stands for the Cremation Association of North America. They do extensive training for cremation to allow best practices and best environmental standards, such as when to cremate larger people to produce fewer emissions versus when to do smaller people, and what temperatures to use to get the best results. We put our staff through that training so they have the highest industry standards available to them. We take pride in making sure that all of our staff have the availability to keep learning. 

Colin Benesch: We as humans never stop learning, and we believe that as a company culture. We want our staff to continuously learn and improve. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is quite a complex thing you just mentioned about even the body size and when to cremate. 

Colin Benesch: Very much so. A lot of folks do not always fully understand that there are many moving pieces to what we do, and there are a lot of hands that move behind the scenes. People ask, “Why are your prices so high?” It is not that we want them to be high, but they do not see that there are four other staff members behind the scenes working tirelessly to make sure that this all moves in a smooth fashion for the family, in a dignified way, and in a reasonable time frame. 

Smaller operations do not have as many staff and are able to keep their costs lower because they have less overhead from staffing. As we grow and get bigger, we need good people. When we started Earth's Option, it was me, Mom, and Dad, and there were three of us, and we kept our prices low because it was just the three of us. Now we are a team of nine, and we are still growing and getting busier. The population still needs that level of service, and I have to pay people the right wages to make sure they stick around. 

Shawn O'Hara: Are there any other misconceptions about funerals and cremation services or just a lack of knowledge? 

Colin Benesch: There are tons. We could talk all night about that, Shawn. One of the big misconceptions is that funeral home prices are designed to be predatory. That is not the case. We are all designed to fill specific niches in specific markets. Some of the bigger funeral homes have larger prices because they have larger overhead, larger teams, and are doing things to a level of excellence and high standards to make sure that families get the feel that they are looking for. 

Like any business, there are multiple levels and tiers. Some companies focus on direct cremation and are cheaper on the price range. Some funeral homes are in the middle and try to serve a little bit of everybody but cannot quite keep up to the high level of standard of some of the big firms. It is very dependent on what you are looking for. 

Colin Benesch: Just like we as individuals are unique, every family has individual needs. Some want 200 people at their service, and some do not want anybody at their service, and that is okay too. It is a matter of what is right for that family. Our job is to give people guidance in the toughest time of their life to give them the service that they need, not what is expected of them, but what they truly need. 

Shawn O'Hara: Colin, thank you. This has been fascinating and very educational. How can people reach you? 

Colin Benesch: Thank you for the opportunity, Shawn. It has been a pleasure. People can reach me via email at colin@earthsoption.com. That is “Earth” with an “S” and “Option” with no “S,” or you are welcome to call our office at (778) 440-8500, or you can go to our website, earthsoption.com. 

Shawn O'Hara: Also, for the petition you had about aquamation, what can people do about that? 

Colin Benesch: Anybody in the Vancouver, Victoria, BC market or region, please write your local MLA. Any MLA in BC would benefit from having this top of mind. You can also go to the BC Aquamation Coalition website for more information. 

Shawn O'Hara: Thank you so much. We will also put those links in the show notes. My guest today has been Colin Benesch, a funeral director and embalmer at Earth's Option Cremation and Burial Services. Thank you for being here today, Colin. 

Colin Benesch: Thanks again, Shawn. I appreciate the opportunity. 

Shawn O'Hara: And that’s a wrap. 

Links

Earth's Option Cremation and Burial Services
AquamationBC Coalition

What You in BC Can Do

Sign the Alkaline Hydrolysis (Aquamation) petition

Contact the BC Attorney General and your local MLA to express your support for more environmentally conscious disposition options and to ask for a timeline on the proposed legislation.

Attorney General Email: ag.minister@gov.bc.ca

Find your BC provincial MLA's contact info to write them: leg.bc.ca/members