BANFF – A $1.1 million plan to breathe new life into a heritage building near the Old Banff Cemetery by turning it into a columbarium was put on hold.
The project involves turning the 1905 Banff power substation into a columbarium – a place where funeral urns containing cremated human remains are stored – as well as creating a scattering garden and memorial wall in a landscaped setting.
“This project has been a long time in the making,” said Jennifer Laforest, a planner with the Town of Banff, at a council meeting Monday (May 13).
Most of council seemed keen on the overall project adjacent to the cemetery on Buffalo Street, but wanted to have the discussion at service review and budget time at the end of the year.
“This has pretty substantial budget implications,” said Coun. Grant Canning.
“Philosophically, we should be having major capital debates at service review and budget, and I don’t think this project should be discussed in isolation.”
With $118,080 already set aside in the capital budget, administration proposed borrowing $988,080 to fund the project up front.
The proposal includes charging a fee of $2,500 to place an urn in a niche in an exterior columbarium on site and $3,100 for placing in the power substation building in a bid to recover capital and maintenance costs.
Municipal columbarium structures are typically provided under a cost recovery model, where user fees pay for the facility development. For a community columbarium, the largest revenue area comes from the niche certificate purchase.
By comparison, an exterior niche certificate in Canmore cost $1,711 for residents and $3,423 for non-residents. An exterior niche certificate in Calgary costs $3,935, while an historic exterior niches are charged at a premium of $4,885.
Coun. Brian Standish voiced concerns about the niche certificate price, saying he was more comfortable with it being $1,500.
“I believe this is a great project but a $1 million price tag is a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “I don’t think the Town of Banff is in the business of making money from someone’s misfortune.”
In June 2015, the substation building was tagged in an act of vandalism, leading to renewed discussions with the Banff Heritage Corporation about restoration of the vacant building.
Originally used as a substation bringing power to Banff from Bankhead, the building was decommissioned and has remained vacant for the better part of 65 years, but still evokes its original character and the architectural details of its original use.
In 2018, administration contracted retained RJC Engineers, Altus Group and ERA Architects to provide an analysis of the substation building structure, a building conservation plan, a site design plan and associated building costs.
The consultant team recommended a columbarium be located both indoors within the existing substation building as well as 18 freestanding columbarium structures outside within a landscape grove.
The site plan allows for the installation of 470 niches – 270 within the landscape grove and 200 within the substation building. Each niche can accommodate two urns.
Laforest said demand for this type of facility has increased as families and individuals choose cremation over traditional burials.
“Historically, there are an average of 12 interments a year in Banff under the former eligibility requirements and, of those interments, 90 per cent are cremations,” she said.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said she loves the project, noting she supports the idea of repurposing and restoring the heritage building.
“We have gone out and sought design and the team came back with this much bigger project,” she said.
“”I think this is the ideal scenario, but because it looks so different, trying to make this decision mid-year is not the appropriate thing to do.”
