Bill 27 - Funeral Services Amendment Act
November 3, 2008 - Committee of the Whole
Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. Well, I’m just the luckiest critic in Alberta because I get all the best bills, and the Funeral Services Amendment Act, 2008, is another one that has come under my portfolio.
I had spoken quite a bit during second about the changes that were being brought in. Overwhelmingly, this is an administrative bill that is in fact offering quite a good number of protections and is also very clearly outlining what are deemed to be unfair practices. When I look at a sectional analysis here, which I did go through in a fair amount of detail the last time I spoke, what we’re getting, particularly in section 14 of the amendment bill, which is amended section 13 of the original bill, are a number of things that they are spelling out as being unfair practices, which I think is really going to help us.
You know, this a respected sector. They are services that are offered that we all want to be able to make use of. We want to be able to understand what we’re doing, yet for a number of reasons in the past we’ve ended up with some people really casting a pall upon the industry, and it’s not fair. They sort of at one point ended up down near the bottom, near used car salesmen, for frightening people and for playing on their fears about their own death or a loved one’s death and how they’d be looked after and respected in burial and memorial services.
That’s awful, to prey on those kinds of fears and also pride, that somehow if you don’t buy the most expensive casket for mom that you’re not, you know, honouring her memory or respecting her, and that’s, again, very unfair. I mean, people need to be able to work within their own budgets on that kind of thing, and just because you can’t afford something far beyond your means doesn’t make you any less loving of your mother. But that’s the situation that we’ve gotten ourselves into with this sector, so I’m glad to see this bill come forward.
I’m glad to see what’s been laid out here. It’s very clear what’s considered unfair practices that will not be tolerated, things like any representation that is likely to mislead or is not true. I mean, that’s the kind of wording we need to really make this clear, that you can’t do any representation in advertising unless you can actually support it with verifiable and accurate data. Excellent wording. You can’t make an oral representation regarding a funeral services contract that is not contained in the written contract. So you can’t sort of promise something outside of it, and then go: “Oh, well, sorry. It’s not written here, so it’s not there.” You know, you can’t use “undue, excessive or unreasonable pressure on an individual to enter into the funeral services contract.” Then there were a number of other things that were allowed where you could get out of a contract or change a contract after the fact. So I really think this has been quite good work that has been put into this, and having had a couple of opportunities to go through it in depth, I’m very happy to support it.
Now, I had asked a couple of questions earlier and I didn’t hear the responses, so I’ll just put them on the record one more time. In section 10, the unclaimed trust funds, these have to be distributed according to the regulations, but of course I don’t know what those regulations are, so I don’t know what the intent is that the government was trying to achieve with this. I’d like to know what’s being intended here. Ultimately, what I’d like to see is that any unclaimed trust funds could go into a provincial fund that could be drawn upon by people that can’t afford funeral costs or that could apply to have some of their expenses defrayed by any of the trust funds that have been reallocated into this particular fund. That’s what I’d like to see.
I don’t know if that’s what’s being intended here, and I don’t know if it’s what’s possible under the government’s regulations because, of course, I can’t see the regulations. I also talked about the protections that are in section 14. Well, they’re protections in that they are clearly setting out what’s prohibited.
I don’t have a lot to add to the discussion. I was quite happy to see what’s being brought forward here, and I’m very happy to support it. Thank you.
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