Funeral professionals gather in Saskatoon to discuss industry changes

Thousands of funeral professionals gather in Saskatoon for an annual meeting to learn and look at the new aspect of the business. Hallee Mandryk reports.

Deathcare professionals from across the country gathered at Saskatoon’s TCU Place for the annual Funeral Service Association of Canada (FSAC) National Summit and Exhibitors Showcase.

“There’s something powerful about being in a room with like-minded people, with people that just get it. So these are people that day in and day out, they are serving families across the country... during their darkest days. And so they are people in this profession that are filled with compassion,” Pam Moss, executive director of the FSAC, said.

The annual gathering changes location each year, and Saskatchewan hasn’t hosted the event since 2012 in Regina. In those 14 years since Saskatchewan last hosted the event, a lot has changed in the industry.

“Funeral service, like so many other professions, there’s been a lot of changes over the years. I think especially since [the] COVID [19 pandemic]...there’s been etiquette changes. Society is changing, the demographics in Canada are changing. And so our profession is one that constantly has to adapt to the needs of the families that we’re serving,” Moss said.

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The executive director shared that one of the most prominent changes is the addition of live streaming memorial services.

“COVID really shone a bright light on the fact that not everyone can be present during a celebration of life or a funeral or a gathering to honour someone’s life. So one of the things that really became important during COVID and has remained is just live streaming,” Moss said.

In addition to live streaming services, many other aspects of the industry have also gone digital. Matthieu Pepin is the chief technological officer of FuneraWeb, a company that offers a variety of services including the videoing of memorial services.

“People can’t always attend physically, they can’t always express their emotions and their condolences to the families. So using virtual technology, they can watch the webcast, can view the ceremony, but they can also testify and leave condolences messages virtually using technology,” Pepin said.

Pepin added that the ability to livestream funerals comes along with the ability to watch the service back at a later date. He shared that this option often ends up being a very impactful one.

“When you’re in grief, you cannot really process everything. Everything goes so fast, you can’t really enjoy the testimony of the person who spoke at the ceremony. So a month later or maybe two months when things have settled down, you can watching the ceremony at home....really process everything, it really helps,” Pepin said.

The increase in options regarding a memorial service extends far beyond the service itself. The exhibitors showcase featured a number of unique things that can be done with cremated remains, which include being made into a diamond or stone.

President of the FSAC, Simon Dubé, shared that while the expansion of the industry is promising, it can make the need for conversations among loved ones about postmortem wishes even greater.

“There’s so many different options that we’re offering to families, even meeting with the family to make arrangements, it’s much longer now than it was before because of all the different options...Because there’s so many options, it’s even more important now to rearrange and reflect on what we wanted so our children don’t have to make those difficult decisions on [our] behalf,” Dubé said.

Dubé added that in his line of work, it’s very common to sit down with families who had never discussed postmortem wishes with a late loved one.

“It comes by nature, we don’t want to think about it. But when you’re in the situation where you’re sitting down and you need to make some decisions for your dad, and you never have the conversation with them, it’s even harder, to make those decisions,” Dubé said.

Moss echoed these sentiments, sharing that while the topic of death is often an unpleasant one, it can be well worth it to discuss.

“Some would say it’s a bit of a death-denying society. I think some generations are a little more comfortable talking about it than others,” Moss said.

Moss added that much of what deathcare and funeral service providers do revolves around offering comfort to people during difficult times.

“A lot of people will say, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t want to put my family through that.’ And I think it’s so important to realize that the gathering after someone has died is for those that remain, it’s not for the person who has gone,” Moss said.